Hotel fire kills 18 in Poland

A fire in a hostel in northwest Poland killed 18 people and injured 20 and firemen are still looking for more victims, the state news agency PAP reported on Monday.

Some 77 people were staying in a three-storey building in Kamieniec Pomorski, which burnt to the ground overnight, including many women and children.

"There were ladders, but they reached only to the first floor," witness Dariusz Janyszko told state television TVP. "I yelled to my sister on the second floor 'Jump, I will catch you' but she didn't. Then it was too late."

Television pictures showed huge flames coming from the building's windows reaching high into the sky above the roof.

Survivors said they had to jump out of windows to escape the flames.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk is on his way to the scene of the fire, government spokesman Pawel Gras told PAP.