Five kids were among 10 people killed in the early hours of this morning when a fire tore through an apartment block in France.
The blaze broke out a little after 3am local time in Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb of Lyon, in a ground-floor apartment of a block of flats and quickly spread upwards.
Local media reported that witnesses had seen residents jumping from the windows to safety.
Fourteen people were injured in the inferno, four of them in serious condition in hospital. Two firefighters also sustained non-serious injuries.
The children who died were aged between three and 15 years old, French interior minister Gérald Darmanin said on Twitter.
Seventy fire trucks carrying 165 firefighters raced to the scene in the early hours to tackle the blaze, the cause of which is currently unknown.
The apartment block has seven stories in total and a basement below ground.
Darmanin called for a probe to be opened into the caused of the horrific blaze.
"We do not know the cause of the fire...there are several scenarios and a probe will be opened," Darmanin said, adding that he had spoken with President Emmanuel Macron about the incident.
Oliver Klein, France's Housing Minister, said he had spoken to the city's mayor Hélène Geoffroy and that he would be visiting the tower block destroyed by the "violent fire" in a show of "state support".
He added that the provisional death toll sent "shivers down my spine".
“I am going there this morning to be alongside the residents, local officials and the emergency services,” he tweeted.
Speaking with French broadcaster BMFTV, one local resident said: “I cry tears when I think of these victims.”
A man, identified as Sarem, living just 330ft away said he was awoken by the inferno.
“We heard screams, children screaming. When we opened the windows, we saw smoke coming out and [so we] immediately went downstairs,” he said.
He added that neighbours used a ladder to help evacuate first-floor residents.
