Egyptian fire toll rises to 30

Thirty people were killed and 37 injured on Monday after a candle fell over during a play in a provincial Egyptian theatre and set fire to curtains and the wooden stage, the state news agency MENA said on Tuesday.


The fire broke out at about 10.30pm Monday local time (7.30am Tuesday NZT) during a performance at an experimental theatre festival in the Nile Valley town of Beni Suef, 100km south of Cairo, it said.


The injured included 14 members of the theatrical troupe and some of the 37 injured had 80 per cent burns, it added. Seventy people escaped unhurt from the single-storey theatre, which was part of the town's cultural centre.


"The fire broke out because a candle being used in the performance fell on the wooden stage and set fire to it and to props made of paper," the agency said.


Firefighters put out the blaze within an hour.


- REUTERS