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2 Dead, 2 Injured After Fire Breaks Out at Greek Migrant Camp


FILE - Refugees and migrants line up for food distribution at the Moria migrant camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Oct. 6, 2016. Two people were killed after a fire broke out at the migrant camp late Thursday, a police official said.
FILE - Refugees and migrants line up for food distribution at the Moria migrant camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Oct. 6, 2016. Two people were killed after a fire broke out at the migrant camp late Thursday, a police official said.

Two people were killed and two others were injured after a fire broke out at a migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesvos late on Thursday, a police official told Reuters.

The official said that a 66-year old woman and a 6-year-old child were killed when a tent caught fire in the camp of Moria. Two other people were seriously injured.

Police and the fire brigade were investigating the scene, a government official said adding that according to initial evidence the fire was probably caused by accident.

Clashes broke out following the incident between dozens of migrants and police, both officials said. The government official said they were brief.

More than 6,000 migrants and refugees are stranded on the island of Lesvos, twice the capacity of state facilities.

Tensions have boiled over at overcrowded camps in the country, which is also struggling to emerge from a debt crisis, as the slow processing of asylum requests adds to frustration over living conditions.

Under a European Union deal with Turkey, migrants and refugees arriving after March 20 are to be held in centers set up on five Aegean islands, including Lesvos, and sent back if their asylum applications are not accepted.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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