DR ‹ › Five Moroccan youths aged between 14 and 17 were killed in a building fire that broke out Monday evening in Manlleu, Catalonia (northeastern Spain), the Consulate of the Kingdom of Morocco in Barcelona announced. According to the same source, the fire started in a storage area located in the attic of the building, where the victims were present. All of them were students enrolled in various secondary schools in the municipality of Manlleu. The Moroccan Consulate General in Barcelona stated that it is working closely with local authorities to arrange the repatriation of the bodies. The blaze also left four people with minor injuries, according to Catalan emergency services, which indicated that the presence of mattresses and other highly flammable materials likely contributed to the rapid spread of the fire throughout the building. The President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, said he was «deeply shaken» by the tragedy and extended his condolences to the families of the victims. Manlleu's mayor, Arnau Rovira, declared three days of mourning, with flags flown at half-mast and a minute of silence observed in front of the town hall.
