Fire at Kinshasa wedding party kills 22

At least 22 people were killed in a fire at a wedding party in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the mayor of the city’s Lingwala district said on Saturday. The fire broke out overnight Friday and continued into the early hours of Saturday in a building in Lingwala, in northern Kinshasa. Several other people were injured. The mayor of Lingwala, Norbert Mushinga, told the Congolese Press Agency that the provisional death toll was 22 and warned that it could rise further.

As the fire spread, people attending the wedding tried to help those trapped inside. Several victims, both alive and dead, were laid along the roadside as people attempted to assist the injured. The narrow hallways of the building became congested as people tried to escape the fire. The exact cause of the blaze has not yet been confirmed. “It is a tragedy,” Congo’s deputy Prime Minister and interior minister Jacquemin Shabani said after visiting the site on Saturday morning.

Deadly fires are common in densely populated parts of Kinshasa, where urban development has not been accompanied by adequate provisions such as fire services. Such fires are particularly common during the dry season, with several reported in Kinshasa this year, according to local media. Authorities have yet to confirm what caused the wedding-party fire or provide a final toll.