Apartment building fire in Spain's Catalonia kills 5 youths

Five people have died and four others suffered minor injuries in a fire at an apartment building in Spain's northeastern Catalonia, regional firefighters said late on Monday.

According to Spanish news agency EFE, citing fire department sources, authorities believe all the deceased were young people, and some may have been underage.

The blaze broke out in a storage room of a five-story building in Manlleu, a town of 21,000 in the Osona area north of Barcelona, firefighters said in a statement.

For reasons still unknown, the victims were unable to escape the storage area, they added. The Mossos d'Esquadra - Catalan police - have opened an investigation into the cause of the fire.

The victims' identification will be completed throughout Tuesday morning, as some of the bodies were charred.

Reuters