A fire killed 11 people and injured 15 at a detention centre at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport housing suspected drugs traffickers and illegal immigrants early today, Dutch police said.
A Justice Ministry spokesman said police were investigating allegations by the detainees that guards had initially not taken reports of a fire seriously.
"We were kept locked up. Our throats were hurting. We were kicking and screaming," an unnamed prisoner told Dutch television. Four of the 15 injured were still in hospital and eight detainees were missing, Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said. Helicopters were used to search for them.
About 300 people were detained in the complex at the time of the fire. An airport spokeswoman said the fire, which began shortly after midnight and took several hours to bring under control, did not affect flights at Europe's fourth-largest airport. The fire raged through about a dozen two-person cells in the complex of prefabricated units.
The head of investigations at Disaster Management Institute Nibra, Ben Ale, said the fact that the fire engulfed an entire wing indicated that either the complex was poorly designed or that firefighters had been called in too late. "A fire that starts in one cell should only jump to a neighbouring cell after 30 minutes ... It thus should take several hours before a whole wing is burning," Ale told Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad.
Nibra investigated two fires at the detention centre in 2002, the year the complex opened, and recommended safety improvements. Ale said he did not know whether the measures were implemented. "We do not have the authority to inspect them."
Pictures on Dutch television showed flames engulfing several blocks and smoke pouring through windows as prisoners draped in blankets stood behind the high fence surrounding the complex, which is a few kilometres from the main airport buildings. The Dutch Safety Board, an independent agency, said it was investigating the cause of the fire.