A fire sparked by an electrical fault killed 18 African migrants, including children, and injured 50 others Tuesday at a camp in Algeria, officials said. The blaze began before dawn at the camp housing more than 650 migrants in Ouargla, 800 kilometres (500 miles) southeast of Algiers, Colonel Farouk Achour of the emergency services said.
Two children and three women were among the victims, the official Algerian news agency APS said. Several hours later the nationalities of the victims were still not known. "The fire broke out at 3:00 am (0200 GMT), killing 18 people and wounding 43," Achour said by telephone.
A source at the emergency services later put the number of injured at 50. The president of the Algerian Red Crescent, Saida Benhabiles, said the fire was sparked by a short circuit. "A short circuit triggered the explosion of a heater and the fire," Benhabiles told AFP.