Six killed in Antwerp apartment tower fire

At least six people have been killed in a fire in a 10-storey apartment tower in the Belgian city of Antwerp, police have told local media.

Police said the local fire department received a call at 9:53am (07:53 GMT) on Wednesday regarding a “raging fire” on the eighth floor of the apartment block in the Linkeroever area of eastern Antwerp.

Several fire brigades as well as ambulances and emergency teams rushed to the building, which houses more than 200 people. It was still too early to give a figure for the number of injured.

Firefighters were battling the blaze in difficult conditions due to its size and intensity, police said.

“This is a very complex fire with poor visibility and heavy smoke inside the building. That makes it more difficult to extinguish,” Marie De Clercq, a spokesperson for the Antwerp Fire Zone, was quoted as saying by The Brussels Times.

Footage from the scene showed one man on an upper floor enveloped in smoke and hanging over a balcony in an effort to get fresh air before making his way to a nearby window.

“First the electricity went out. Three minutes later we got a fire alarm. By then, there was already smoke in the hallways”, Geert Dewulf, who lives on the 10th floor of the building, told Belgian broadcaster VRTNWS.

“We tried to get down on our own but we couldn’t manage it anymore. We barricaded ourselves in our apartment and waited on the terrace. About 10 minutes later, the fire department came to rescue us from the terrace with their fire ladder.”

Another resident, who gave his name as Gerard, described helping a neighbour escape from an apartment filled with smoke, but being unable to find her cat.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, a former mayor of Antwerp, said in a social media post his “thoughts are with the victims and the evacuated residents of the terrible fire on Linkeroever”.

“My deep appreciation goes out to the emergency services who are striving to help the many affected people as quickly and safely as possible, and who are working hard to bring the fire under control,” he said.

Linkeroever is a large residential area dotted with high-rise apartment buildings and bordering a major park where outdoor summer concerts are held.