Nine elderly people died when fire swept through a nursing home in eastern Bulgaria on Monday, officials said.

The blaze broke out around 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) in an old school building turned into a care home for the elderly in the village of Royak, fire department chief Tihomir Totev told public BNT television.

“Unfortunately, nine people lost their lives out of the 58 who were in the home at the time of the fire,” he said.

The other residents were evacuated from the building and some of them required medical care as they had inhaled smoke, the official added.

Care home director Milena Mazurik confirmed the number of victims to private bTV channel, adding that this was “the final number of victims.”

None of the officials commented on the possible cause of the fire that engulfed the roof of the building before being put out by six fire engines sent to the scene.

Three patients died earlier in November in a fire that broke out in a coronavirus ward in Bulgaria’s southeastern town of Sliven.