Death toll in Spain apartment block fire rises to 10

Police found a 10th body in an apartment block devastated by a huge fire in Spain’s third largest city of Valencia, authorities said on Saturday.

The blaze, fanned by strong winds, broke out on Thursday evening in the affluent El Campanar district.

On Friday evening, authorities said on X that police had revised the number of dead to nine from 10 in the process of identifying the bodies in the building.

But authorities confirmed a 10th body had been found on Saturday morning, in a new statement on X.

Some 100 survivors were housed in hotels on Friday night.

A minute’s silence will take place at Valencia’s City Hall on Saturday, the second day of three official days of mourning decreed after the fire.

Emergency services said the blaze began on the fourth floor of one of the towers but gave no cause. A local magistrate has opened an investigation into the blaze.

The building, comprising two towers linked by what its developers described as a “panoramic lift”, was completed in 2008, officials said. It had 138 apartments, newspaper El Pais reported.

Locals have rallied around, donating clothes, food and medicines for surviving residents who lost all their belongings in the fire.