Bosnia

Investigators are working to determine cause of the blaze that broke out at facility in Tuzla in northeastern Bosnia.

A fire at a retirement home in northeastern Bosnia has killed at least 11 people and injured about 30 others, officials said.

It remained unclear what caused the blaze, which engulfed the seventh floor of the building in Tuzla, about 80km (50 miles) northeast of Sarajevo, after it broke out on Tuesday evening.

The fire, which took about an hour to bring under control, sent flames and smoke pouring out of the building into the night sky.

Bosnian media reported that higher floors in the complex were occupied by elderly people who could not move on their own or were ill.

“I had gone to bed when I heard a cracking sound. I don’t know if it was the windows in my room breaking,” resident Ruza Kajic told national broadcaster BHRT on Wednesday.

“I live on the third floor,” she said. “I looked out the window and saw burning material falling from above. I ran out into the hallway. On the upper floors, there are bedridden people.”

Admir Vojnic, who lives near the retirement home, also told the Reuters news agency that he saw “huge flames and smoke, and elderly and helpless people standing outside” the building.

Investigators were still working to determine the cause of the fire and identify those killed in the blaze, prosecutor spokesperson Admir Arnautovic told reporters.

“The identification of the bodies will take place during the day,” Arnautovic said.

Meanwhile, the retirement home’s director said he had offered his resignation.

“It’s the only human thing to do, the least I can do in this tragedy. My heart goes out to the families of the victims,” Mirsad Bakalovic told the Fena news agency.

“Last night was a truly difficult event, a tragedy not only for the city of Tuzla, but for all of Bosnia.”

Officials from across government in Bosnia and Herzegovina offered their condolences and help to the Tuzla authorities.

“We feel the pain and are always ready to help,” Savo Minic, the prime minister of the country’s autonomous Serb Republic, wrote on X.

Milorad Dodik rejects appeals court’s decision, saying he will seek help of Russia and the Trump administration.

An appeals court in Bosnia has upheld an earlier ruling sentencing Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik to one year in prison and banning him from politics for six years over his separatist actions, which set off tensions in the Balkan country.

Dodik rejected the court ruling on Friday, telling reporters that he will continue to act as the Bosnian Serb president as long as he has the support of the Bosnian Serb parliament.

“I do not accept the verdict,” he said. “I will seek help from Russia and I will write a letter to the US administration.”

A Sarajevo court in February sentenced the president of Republika Srpska – the ethnic Serb part of Bosnia – to a year in prison for failing to comply with rulings by the international envoy overseeing Bosnia’s 1995 peace accords.

It also banned him from holding office for six years.

The conviction led to uproar in Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic, triggering Bosnia’s worst political crisis since the conflict in the early 1990s, which killed about 100,000 people between 1992 and 1995.

Dodik has rejected the trial and his conviction as “political”.

In response, the parliament in Republika Srpska passed a law prohibiting the central police and judicial authorities from operating in the Serb entity. Bosnia’s constitutional court annulled those laws in May.

On Friday, the European Union said in a brief statement that the appeals court’s “verdict is binding and must be respected”.

“The EU calls on all parties to acknowledge the independence and impartiality of the court, and to respect and uphold its verdict,” the bloc said.

Dodik’s lawyer Goran Bubic said his team would appeal Friday’s ruling to the constitutional court and seek a temporary delay of the implementation of the verdict pending its decision.

Dodik has repeatedly called for the separation of the Serb-run half of Bosnia to join Serbia, which prompted the administration of former United States President Joe Biden to impose sanctions against him and his allies in 2022.

The Bosnian Serb leader was also accused of corruption and pro-Russia policies.