VIENNA, Feb 9: A fire swept through a retirement home in the western Austrian town of Egg on Friday, killing 11 residents, officials said.

Television pictures showed the second and third storeys of the retirement home engulfed in flames and heavy smoke billowing round the building.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately known, but officials said the deaths occurred from smoke inhalation.

About 250 firefighters battled for some three hours to put out the blaze and 75 Red Cross workers were helping at the scene, the officials said.

One official said 23 residents and two carers were in the building when the fire started.

“This is a catastrophe. It is awful,” Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer told reporters in Egg, a town with a population of about 3,500.

Firefighters were now investigating the cause of the blaze, said a spokesman for the regional government of Vorarlberg.

“According to information from fire services, the fire started in a room on the first floor at the back of the building,” said the spokesman.

Markus Natter, head of the firefighters in Egg, told the Austrian broadcaster ORF: “The biggest problem was the smoke. People could simply not get out through the stairwell.”

The death toll was the biggest in a blaze in Austria since 155 people were killed when a funicular train in Kaprun caught fire in a tunnel in November 2000.

—Reuters