Rome - Nineteen psychiatric patients died early yesterday in a fire at a residential home near Salerno in southern Italy.
The victims, aged between 30 and 60, were asleep when the fire began around 1a.m. Thought to have been caused by an electrical short circuit, it spread rapidly through the prefabricated metal and glass-fibre buildings, giving most of the handicapped occupants no time to escape. Nine of the patients at the Murgia di San Gregorio Magno were rescued and were being treated in hospital for shock.