Several dead in fire at Brussels construction site, authorities say


Members of the police gather, following a fire at Oxy Brussels building in Brussels, Belgium, July 14, 2026. REUTERS/Yves Herman

BRUSSELS, July 14 (Reuters) - ⁠Several people have died in a fire at ⁠a construction site in Brussels on Tuesday, with ‌a search for six missing persons ongoing, local authorities said.

An unspecified number of bodies had been found in one of two elevators ​at the large renovation project on ⁠the central Place de ⁠Brouckere where a fire broke out early on Tuesday, a ⁠spokesman ‌for the local labour inspection service said.

"We had small access to one of the ⁠two elevator cabinets and there we had a ​view that ‌there are some corpses of two or three people ⁠who died," ​spokesman Brecht Speybrouck told Reuters.

He said a total of six workers were unaccounted for and that it was unclear ⁠what had caused the fire.

The local ​fire brigade said more than 200 workers had been on the site when the fire broke out and that ⁠three people had been taken to a hospital.

An initial fire at the lower floors of the renovation project was contained relatively quickly, Belgian broadcaster VRT said, ​citing the fire brigade. But flames ⁠that went through the elevator shafts caused a new fire ​in an underground floor, the ‌firefighters said.

(Reporting by Christian Levaux, ​Caden Kipfmuller, Bart Biesemans and Bart Meijer; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop, Alexandra Hudson and Mark Porter)

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