A deadly fire which killed 13 people at a bar in France is believed to have started after a woman dropped a birthday cake lit with candles after she tripped downstairs.
The fire – France’s deadliest in a decade – ripped through the Au Cuba Libre bar in Rouen, in the Normandy region, shortly before 1am local time.
It took hold of the basement which had been hired out for the private party and was packed with revellers aged 18-25.
One party member is said to have tripped and dropped the cake on the floor – sparking an inferno which took hold of foam cladding acting as soundproofing around the walls and ceiling of the room.
Some of the victims were poisoned by a toxic mix of gases released by the burning polystyrene and one of seven severely injured is still fighting for their life.
Not all the victims died as a result of the fire, officials have confirmed today, but from inhaling toxic fumes.
While authorities are treating the blaze as a criminal incident, they are making it clear it was a ‘tragic accident’.
Some six or seven people are understood to have sustained serious injuries in the blaze, while one remains in a critical condition in hospital this morning.
Survivors are talking to police in a bid to establish what caused the fire, while mourners are at the scene paying their respects.
The fire took place just five miles from the Rouen suburb of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, where Father Jacques Hamel was murdered by two Isis terrorists on June 26th.