Eight elderly people died in a fire at a care home near Zaragoza in northeastern Spain in the early hours of Sunday, a government official said.
Twelve other people were injured, two of them seriously, in the blaze in the small town of Cuarte de Huerva, the spokesman for the regional government of Aragon said.
The fire broke out at after midnight and police were still trying to find out what started it, he added.
One of the injured was a carer.
The fire appears to have started in a first-floor bedroom of the three-storey building, fire brigade spokesman Carlos Carilla said.
The fire department had responded to a phone call from a person who asked for help to move elderly people and said a mattress in a bedroom had caught fire.
Mr Alcalde said other lives had been saved thanks to the rapid response by fire and police, but called it “a very sad day” in Zaragoza.