An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw several firetrucks and a security perimeter set up around the area, and residents and traumatized neighbors assembling in a car park opposite the building.
Vaulx-en-Velin, a town of 43,000 inhabitants, is among the most impoverished areas in the Rhone region.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called the deadly fire “a shock” said that he would travel in the coming hours to the town, which is 470 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of Paris. Darmanin was traveling to Lyon on Friday to present the security plan for Sunday’s final between Argentina and France.
Darmanin will be accompanied on his visit by Housing Minister Olivier Klein.
It’s the deadliest fire in France since 2019, when an arson attack in a posh Paris district killed 10 people and injured 32 others.
