Fire breaks out in abandoned and occupied industrial unit in Badalona
17 injured, some in critical condition, as firefighters fear others might be trapped inside as number of people residing unclear
A fire broke out on Wednesday evening in Badalona, a city just north of Barcelona, in an industrial unit abandoned and now occupied by vulnerable people.
At around midnight, no fatalities were reported, but 17 people injured and two of them in critical condition, with four in serious condition and 11 with mild symptoms.
At 12am, the firefighters had not taken control of the fire yet, and had not been able to access the building, so they could not rule out that some corpses be found inside.
The local council believes that around 100 to 200 people were usually living in the industrial unit and that so far the whereabouts of 60 of them was clear after the fire.
Some of the people taken care of by the emergency services had left the building escaping the flames through windows.
In the early hours of Friday, 28 teams of firefighters were working on putting out the fire.