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| Amsterdam Jail Fire Kills 11 |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 10/31/2005 |
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Eleven people were killed and 15 were injured when fire broke out at a detention centre at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Thursday, Dutch media reported. The media quoted the Justice Ministry for the latest death toll. An airport spokeswoman said the fire had no impact on flights. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. The detention complex mainly housed suspected drug traffickers, police said, but it was also used to hold illegal immigrants before expulsion. The cause of the fire, which began shortly after midnight and took several hours to bring under control, was not immediately known. A Justice Ministry spokesman said police were investigating allegations by detainees that officers had initially not taken reports of a fire seriously, causing panic. “We were kept locked up. Our throats were hurting. We were kicking and screaming,” an unnamed prisoner told Dutch television. The fire raged through about a dozen two-person cells in the complex of prefabricated units. Television pictures showed flames engulfing several blocks and smoke pouring through windows as prisoners huddled in blankets stood behind the high fence surrounding the complex, close to the main airport buildings. The Dutch news agency ANP said all the dead were detainees and added that there were 350 people detained in the complex at the time of the fire. A spokeswoman for the Dutch National Refugee Council, criticized conditions there. “The hallways were very narrow, and we were shocked to hear there was not one central system to unlock all the doors at once,'” she said. “This made it dangerous to reach individual cells during the fire.” The centre-right government has come under attack for its treatment of illegal immigrants and its plans to expel 26,000 asylum seekers, with several going on a hunger strike earlier this year to demand the closure of deportation centers. |
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