At least 22 people were killed when fire tore through a party hall in Kinshasa overnight, according to local officials, in a blaze that broke out while a wedding ceremony was underway.
The fire started in the early hours of Saturday in a building on Triomphal Boulevard in Lingwala, a commune in the north of the Congolese capital, and inside the grounds of the Protestant University of Congo.
Norbert Mushinga, mayor of Lingwala, told the state news agency ACP that the provisional toll stood at 22 dead and could rise. Several people were injured and taken to hospitals across the city. Much of the building’s contents were destroyed.
The cause of the fire has not been established, and no official statement has been issued beyond the commune’s provisional figures.
Comments