Fire in a storage room in northeastern Spain kills five children

MADRID (AP) — A fire broke out in a top-floor storage room at an apartment building in northeastern Spain, killing five children who were trapped inside and injuring five other people elsewhere in the building, officials said Tuesday.

The fire started around 9 p.m. Monday in Manlleu, a town of about 21,000 people in the Catalonia region north of Barcelona. The victims who died were identified as minors who ranged in age from 14 to 17 and who did not live in the building, Catalan police said.

Police were investigating the cause of the fire and the reason why the children were not able to escape the room. Police declined to say whether they were considering the case a possible homicide.

Four of the injured people were released from hospitals and the other injured person didn’t require hospitalization, emergency services said.

Catalonia’s regional leader, Salvador Illa, expressed his condolences to relatives of the victims on X, saying he was “deeply saddened by the death of five people.”