At least six people are dead after a fire tore through a 10-story apartment building in the Belgian city of Antwerp on Wednesday morning. Police relayed the death toll to local media as fire brigades, ambulances, and emergency teams raced to the scene.
The local fire department received a call at 9:53 a.m. local time reporting a raging fire on the eighth floor of the building in the Linkeroever area of the city, according to Al Jazeera. The number of injured had not yet been confirmed as of Wednesday.
Firefighters described brutal conditions inside the building. "This is a very complex fire with poor visibility and heavy smoke inside the building. That makes it more difficult to extinguish," said Marie De Clercq, a spokesperson for the Antwerp Fire Zone.
Residents described a chaotic evacuation. Geert Dewulf, who lives on the 10th floor, told Belgian broadcaster VRTNWS what happened in the first minutes. "First the electricity went out. Three minutes later we got a fire alarm. By then, there was already smoke in the hallways." Dewulf said he and others tried to descend on their own but could not. "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 neighbor escape from a smoke-filled apartment, though he was unable to save her cat.
Footage from the scene showed one man on an upper floor hanging over a balcony, enveloped in smoke, trying to reach fresh air before moving to a nearby window.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, himself a former mayor of Antwerp, posted on social media that his thoughts were with the victims. "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 densely residential part of Antwerp marked by high-rise apartment towers and bordered by a large park. The building involved in Wednesday's fire houses more than 200 people. Investigators had not publicly named a cause of the fire as of Wednesday morning.
