The alarm from Tydingegatan reached SOS Alarm at 2:15 on Sunday morning. Kritianstadsbladet has spoken to one of the two men who discovered the fire.

– We were driving home when we saw smoke coming from a block of flats, so we went over, the man said.

They alerted SOS, rushed into the building and hammered on doors to get people out. And they were able to get a man out of the blazing flat quickly. They also managed to get another man out.

Meanwhile another person came along and could help to get more people out. Along with two of the ambulance crew they were able to raise a ladder at the back of the building, where they were able to help two men and a child down from an upper floor. When the fire brigade arrived, everyone was out of the building.

The fire brigade reports that there was a fully-developed fire in one of the flats.

– Smoke and flames were coming out of the windows both at the back of the house and at the front, says Thomas Nordin, inner officer in charge at the fire brigade in Kristianstad.

The fire was extinguished by 4 am.

– The fire didn’t spread to other flats, but smoke spread in the stairwell, Nordin says.

Several flats have been filled with smoke. People in neighbouring flats were unable to return to their homes. The emergency service reports that three people were taken to hospital by ambulance to be examined.

The police say that the fire started in connection with cooking. They have made a report on negligence and causing danger to the public.