Ten university students have died and three others were injured after a fire tore through a restaurant in southeastern Peru during a birthday celebration, local police said on Friday.
It was said that the blaze erupted on Thursday afternoon in the city of Huancané, in the Andean region of Puno near the Bolivian border.
The victims, aged between 17 and 23, were all students of a teacher-training college and had gathered on the second floor of the Calma Tripa restaurant when they were trapped by flames.
A local police officer said that “with the arrival of forensic experts from the police and prosecutor’s office, 10 bodies were found,” confirming the scale of the tragedy.
The building, made of wood and brick, was quickly engulfed. Neighbours attempted to battle the fire with extinguishers and buckets of water, according to local reports, but were unable to control the spread.
Huancané’s mayor, Valerio Tapia, told the state news agency Andina that the city of about 20,000 residents has no fire service of its own. Firefighters from the neighbouring town of Juliaca arrived roughly an hour after the blaze began.
A local source said the fire may have been triggered by an exploding gas tank, a risk frequently associated with restaurants and small businesses in rural and peri-urban parts of Peru, where flammable materials are often stored in breach of safety standards.
Authorities have opened an investigation into the cause of the blaze as families and the wider community grapple with the loss of young lives.
AFP
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