Man in his 30s dies in fire at Jerusalem apartment building

A man died in a fire at a residential building in Jerusalem on Monday morning, as rescuers saved several other people from the blaze, police said.

Police opened an investigation into the incident.

The victim was in his thirties, according to the Magen David Adom paramedic service that pronounced the man’s death at the scene.

He was not immediately identified.

The fire took place in a two-story building on Avodat Yisrael Street in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of the capital.

Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services said in a statement that rescuers had broken open the locked door to an apartment in the building that was “burning and shrouded with thick smoke,” the Kol Hair website reported.

Inside the apartment, firefighters found a man trapped in the flames and immediately brought him out for medical treatment, the statement said, but medics were unable to resuscitate him.

Firefighting units were working to put out the flames and clear the building of smoke, the service said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.