About 11 residents have died in a fire at a municipal nursing home in the northern Bosnian city of Tuzla, the Bosnian news portal klix.ba reported on Wednesday.

It cited the city’s mayor, Zijad Lugavić.

An additional 35 people are being treated in hospital, with three in critical condition, according to the reports.

The fire broke out during the night on the seventh floor of the nine-storey building for reasons yet to be determined.

Reports indicate that the floor housed bedridden patients with severe dementia and cancer.

Among the injured were firefighters, police officers, rescue workers and staff members of the home.

The nursing home in Tuzla was constructed in the 1980s during the era of socialist Yugoslavia.

The towering building, designed in the architectural style of that time, is a prominent feature of Tuzla, a former industrial centre in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Residents of the home, their relatives and some politicians in Tuzla have criticised the unacceptable conditions in the nursing home for years.

Issues such as damp, poor food and rough treatment by staff were highlighted, klix.ba reported.

Criticism also focused on the placement of severely ill patients on the upper floors.

According to the reports, city officials did not address the complaints.

At the beginning of the year, the management of the home reportedly increased the prices for accommodation and care by up to 30 per cent.

(dpa/NAN)