10 dead, including 5 children, in France apartment fire
Vaulx-En-Velin (France) (AP): Ten people, including five children died as nighttime fire ravaged an eight-story apartment building Friday in one of the city of Lyon's poorest suburbs, French authorities said. The cause of the fatal blaze was being investigated.
Fourteen people were injured in the fire in the small suburban town of Vaulx-en-Velin, four of them seriously, according to the prefecture for the Rhone region. Some 170 firefighters were mobilized after the fire broke out shortly after 3 a.m. The fire has been extinguished.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw several firetrucks and a security perimeter set up around the area, and residents and traumatized neighbors assembling in a car park opposite the building.
Vaulx-en-Velin, a town of 43,000 inhabitants, is among the most impoverished areas in the Rhone region.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called the deadly fire "a shock" said that he would travel in the coming hours to the town, which is 470 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of Paris. Darmanin was traveling to Lyon on Friday to present the security plan for Sunday's final between Argentina and France.
Darmanin will be accompanied on his visit by Housing Minister Olivier Klein.
It's the deadliest fire in France since 2019, when an arson attack in a posh Paris district killed 10 people and injured 32 others.
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BLO found dead in Bengal, work-related pressure alleged
Kolkata (PTI): A Booth Level Officer (BLO) was found dead in West Bengal's Bankura district on Sunday, triggering allegations that work-related pressure linked to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls may have played a role, police said.
The incident occurred in Ranibandh block, where the body of the deceased, Haradhan Mandal, was recovered from a school premises on Sunday morning.
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"Mandal was a schoolteacher by profession and served as the BLO of Booth No. 206 under the Rajakata area of Ranibandh block," a police officer said.
According to the officer, a note bearing the deceased's signature was recovered from the spot, in which he reportedly referred to being unable to cope with work pressure.
"We have seized the note and sent the body for post-mortem examination," he said.
The police initiated an investigation to ascertain the circumstances leading to Mandal's death.
Officials said all angles are being examined.
"Till now, 39 ordinary citizens, including four BLOs, have died due to SIR panic, including suicides," West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had claimed on December 2.
The SIR exercise began in the state on November 4.
