AFPDAVAO: Thirty-seven people were believed killed in a fire that engulfed a shopping mall in the southern Philippine city of Davao, the local vice mayor said on Sunday. A Bureau of Fire Protection commander at the scene said the chances of the 37 surviving were “zero“, Paolo Duterte, the vice mayor, who is also the president’s son, wrote in a Facebook post. The blaze started at the four-storey NCCC Mall on Saturday morning and people were trapped inside, including in a call centre on the top floor, Ralph Canoy, a police officer in the district, told AFP. He said investigators believed some of those likely killed had been trapped in the call centre, which operated 24 hours a day. “It’s possible that while they were working, they did not immediately notice the fire spreading,” Canoy said of the call centre workers.

Source: New Strait Times December 23, 2017 22:52 UTC