MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th May, 2023) At least six people died after a major fire broke out inside a three-story hostel in New Zealand's capital city of Wellington on Tuesday, with more victims expected, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said.
"I have had varying reports, I understand six confirmed previously and it looks like there are likely to be more," Hipkins told the Newshub tv channel.
Meanwhile, a number of local newspapers reported that up to 10 people had died in the fire. However, the reports were denied by the Wellington district police, saying that the "initial assessment is that the number of deceased is fewer than 10," while adding they were yet to gain access to the hostel.
"It is currently unsafe and until we can access the building � and reconcile numbers of people who are safe � we are not in a position to determine how many people are deceased or unaccounted for. Our focus is on identifying those people as soon as we can," the police said on social media.
The Wellington fire and emergency department said that 52 people had been found in the building, with a number of people still unaccounted for.
The fire broke out on the top floor of the three-story hostel in the center of Wellington around 12:30 a.m. local time (00:30 GMT) on Tuesday , the police said. Twenty emergency trucks arrived at the site, the fire service stated, adding that its crews had rescued five people off the roof of the building using an aerial appliance.
