A fire broke out early Sunday morning at a refugee shelter in the town of Apolda, in the eastern German federal state of Thuringia. A child became his victim, 10 people were hospitalized.
How informs DW, citing eyewitness accounts, the height of the flames reached several meters. The building, which houses 245 refugees from Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan, has become uninhabitable, the administration said.
The body of a dead child was found, at the same time, a 9-year-old boy from Ukraine went missing. To determine whether the found body belongs to the missing Ukrainian, it is necessary to conduct a forensic medical examination. The police will receive the results on Monday.
A police investigation is under way, but the cause of the fire has not been determined, nor is there any reason to suspect criminal activity yet. Oleksiy Makeev, Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, said that Ukrainian consuls are in contact with Ukrainian citizens who live in Thuringia and with German law enforcement agencies:
“We are waiting for more details, after that I will report the details.”
The residents of the refugee center were moved to another location in nearby Germsdorf. They were accompanied by police officers and interpreters.
Among the ten victims delivered to the hospital – mostly poisoned by smoke inhalation – one patient is in a medical facility with a broken leg.
Thuringian Interior Minister Georg Mayer expressed his concern over the “terrible news” in Apolda. And Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Feather said that the security authorities are ready to cooperate with the Thuringian authorities.
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