Wintzenheim, France, 9 August 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Eleven people were found in the debris after a fire broke out at a holiday lodge for adults with disabilities in the French town of Wintzenheim, the deputy public prosecutor of the nearby city of Colmar said on Wednesday.

Earlier, 10 people with disabilities and a caregiver had gone missing after the fire in a remote district of Wintzenheim. It was not known whether the people had difficulty getting out of the house because of their disability, Nathalie Kielwasser said.

The fire in the holiday accommodation had broken out on Wednesday morning at around 6:30 am (0430 GMT). At the time, 28 people were staying there.

The local prefecture wrote of two groups of adults including people with disabilities. Seventeen people managed to escape from the house before the fire brigade arrived, most of them from the ground floor. A total of 300 square metres of the 500-square-metre building caught fire.

One person was also injured in the fire, and another is in shock, the prefecture said.

The location of the fire is near the German border, about 50 kilometres from the south-western city of Freiburg.

Investigations are now under way to determine how the fire started. It is still too early to know the exact cause, Kielwasser said.

Philippe Hauwiller, head of the fire brigade, said it was likely that the fire started on the first floor. The building caught fire very quickly, he said.

Daniel Leroy, deputy mayor of Wintzenheim, said: "We know this hostel. This shelter has worked very well and has not caused any problems." Representatives of the municipality had seen the inside of the building. Everything had been renovated and was in "perfect condition."

According to Leroy, the vault of the house was on fire and the roof had collapsed. The entire upper floor was destroyed. Only the ground floor, where the common rooms were located, remained intact.

In the morning, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences on Twitter: "In the face of this tragedy, my thoughts are with the victims, with the injured, with the people close to them."

Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne called the incident terrible. She said she would go to the scene of the incident.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin thanked the fire brigade for their quick response.