PRAGUE: A restaurant fire in a northwestern city of the Czech Republic killed six people and injured eight in a suspected heating accident, rescue services said Sunday. “The fire spread extremely fast after a patio gas heater was probably knocked over,” the local fire service posted on Facebook.

The fire broke out in a wooden beer garden adjacent to the U Kojota (“Coyote”) restaurant at a housing estate in the city of Most, about 70 km northwest of the capital Prague. It was reported at 2217 GMT on Saturday and was under control by midnight, the fire service said. “Despite all efforts... the fire had tragic consequences for six people,” it said.

Eight others were injured, six of them seriously, and all were taken to hospitals with burns. Five were taken to Prague, two to the Most hospital and one to the regional capital of Usti nad Labem, regional emergency service director Petr Bures told the public broadcaster Czech TV. “Some of them have really serious injuries and their lives are in danger,” Bures said.

Around 30 people were evacuated from the restaurant and an adjacent block of flats, Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said on X. One firefighter, Zdenek Blaha, told Czech TV that all six victims were found inside the restaurant, without specifying whether they were in the beer garden. He said the first four fire trucks arrived six minutes after the fire was reported and found the entire restaurant in flames because the heater had exploded. 

In total, twenty-eight fire trucks and 63 firefighters were needed to extinguish the blaze. Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed his condolences, calling the accident “a great tragedy” in an X post. Regional police chief Zbynek Dvorak told Czech TV that police had ruled out terrorism, saying the fire was caused by negligence. — AFP