Eight people died on Monday in a fire at a home for the elderly on the outskirts of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, officials and media said.
Seven people were injured in the blaze that erupted around 3:30 a.m. in Barajevo, a municipality on the southern edge of Belgrade, the state RTS television reported.
Police did not immediately issue an official statement. The RTS report quoted emergency sector officer Luka Causic as saying 30 people in the home.
“This is a huge tragedy but it could have been even worse,” he said.
The Serbian government’s social care minister Nemanja Starovic told RTS initial findings suggest the cause was arson.
The RTS report said the injured were transferred to a hospital in Belgrade.