Morocco: 55 dead in mattress factory fire in Casablanca

Fire has destroyed a mattress factory in the Moroccan coastal city of Casablanca, killing 55 people, state news agency MAP reported.

Twelve others including a police officer were seriously injured in the blaze which took hold on the ground floor of the factory and quickly engulfed the four-storey building, MAP said.

About 100 of the factory's 150 employees were on site when the fire broke out at around 10 am and it took more than 100 fire-fighters over three hours to bring the fire under control.

"People said the fire-fighters got there within half an hour but didn't find enough water to stop the blaze," eyewitness Abdellatif Khaloul told Reuters by telephone. "I heard that many factory workers were trapped on the upper floors and cried from the windows for help."

Mike Hitchen, Mike Hitchen Consulting Publisher of
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