Nine children among 19 dead after fire rips through flat in New York

At least 19 people, including nine children, have died after a fire broke out in an apartment block in New York, officials have said.

The fire incident happened on Sunday morning, Jan 9, in a 19-storey building, located in a deprived area of the Bronx.

More than 30 people are believed to have suffered severe damage to their airways after inhaling smoke from the fire.

The blaze is believed to have started in a duplex apartment on the second and third floors and did not spread to other flats.

It took the efforts of 200 firefighters to bring the fire under control and rescue the victims, of whom 26 are in a critical condition. the fire department said.

Pictures of the victims show a boy of around eight years old being fed oxygen through a mask while he lay limp on a stretcher.

Others show a woman hunched on the floor with her face almost entirely covered in soot.

The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) described the incident as a five-alarm fire, the most severe category.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, the FDNY added, though the origins are not believed to be suspicious.

Another apartment building in the Bronx had to be evacuated due to a fire caused by an e-bike battery which spread from the second to the top floor on Saturday morning.

No serious injuries were reported although several apartments were seriously damaged.