10,000 lose homes in Philippines slum fire

Around 10,000 people lost their homes and one child was killed when a fire swept through one of the Philippines' largest shantytowns in Manila on Tuesday, an arson investigator said.

Around 10,000 people lost their homes and one child was killed when a fire swept through one of the Philippines' largest shantytowns in Manila on Tuesday, an arson investigator said.

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The authorities had yet to determine the cause of the blaze that destroyed about 500 houses in the Bahay Toro slum, fire inspector Catherine Albino said.

A five-year-old boy was killed, six other people were injured and about 2,000 families were left homeless, she added. Firemen battled for more than three hours before the blaze was brought under control.

Albino said that a Bahay Toro family averaged five members and several families usually shared one dwelling.

Slum fires are a frequent hazard in the Philippine capital of 12 million people, she said, citing another blaze two kilometres (a mile) away from Bahay Toro a week before that razed 600 shanties and left 20,000 people homeless.