Three children were killed among 11 people in a fire at an apartment block in the Czech Republic that police believe were deliberately set up.
Police said one person was arrested in connection with the fire that saw five people jump to their deaths in the eastern city of Bohumin near the Polish border.
Regional police chief Tomas Kuzel told Czech public television that police suspected arson was the cause and that they had arrested one person in the case.
“I think we are fine when it comes to the culprit,” Kuzel said without indicating whether the arrested person will be charged with arson.
He compared the fire to a case in 2013 when a man caused a gas explosion and fire that killed three children and two other people, including himself. He hated telling his fellow tenants.
“It’s similar,” Kuzel said of the conflagration seven years ago in the eastern Czech city of Frenstat. “The culprit there has also, in principle, liquidated a block of flats and left many people dead.”
Lukas Popp, a spokesman for local firefighters, told AFP that the fire broke out on the 11th floor of the concrete block of flats in Bohumin on the Czech-Polish border, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) east of the capital Prague.
“Six people died on this floor, including three children and three adults – and a dog,” he added.
“Our firefighters were on the scene really quickly, but during the action, five people jumped out of the 12th floor window and died,” Popp said.
Regional fire brigade Vladimir Vlcek told Czech television that he did not want to speculate about the cause of the fire at the moment.
“But the fire was developing very fast, which is not normal. A fire like that typically affects one room, but this one hit the whole flat, all the rooms were burnt down,” he said.
Vlcek admitted that it was not clear why the five people jumped out of the window when their flat had not yet been hit by the light.
“All we needed was tens of seconds to inflate the springboard and the impact would not have been so tragic,” he said.
Regional Governor Ivo Vondrak said that in addition to the victims, thirteen people were injured in the fire, including two firefighters and one police officer.
“The fire alarm was declared at 17:49 (1549 GMT) and the fire department was on the scene at 17:54,” Vondrak added.
Popp said the fire was localized and investigators were looking into the causes of the deadly blow.
Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek described the fire as “an enormous tragedy” in a tweet.
“My deepest condolences to the bereaved,” he said.
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