Blaze in Bar Kills 13 in Rouen, France

The victims are aged between 18 and 25, the Paris-Normandie news website reports (in French).

More than 50 firefighters tackled the blaze, the interior ministry said.

NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley tells our Newscast unit that it happened “when birthday candles ignited a combustible ceiling”.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

In May, at least 17 people died when a makeshift home for elderly people outside the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, caught fire.

The blaze started at around midnight at the Au Cuba Libre bar in the city centre, and the firemen were at the scene by 00:20 am (2220 GMT Friday).

The neighbourhood was blocked off, and Rouen Mayor Yvon Robert went to the scene.

Rouen’s police say the fire could begin from the big cake, which was decorated with candles.

Images from outside the bar on French television showed a large ground-floor window broken open, burned red bar chairs and tattered awning at the front.

“Young people, some of them very young, had their lives cut short”, said French junior minister Clotilde Valter.

A police officer told Reuters that one of the injured bar-goers was in critical condition after suffering burns on nearly 90 percent of their body.

Terrorism has been ruled out by the authorities, according to reports from the Guardian and the BBC.

French President Francois Hollande pledged “everything will be done as part of the ongoing judicial inquiry to determine the causes of this tragic accident”. The city is on high alert after two ISIS-linked extremists killed a priest in his church outside Rouen late last month.