More than a dozen killed in New York City apartment building fire | News

Officials say nine children among the dead, dozens of other people injured from the fire in the Bronx neighbourhood.

At least 19 people have been killed, including nine children, and dozens of others injured in an apartment building fire in New York City, according to city officials and US media.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed that 19 people had died from the blaze that broke out about 11am on Sunday in a 19-storey apartment building in the Bronx neighbourhood.

“Right now we have 19 people confirmed dead and we have several more that are in critical condition,” Adams said in an interview with US media network CNN.

Nine of the dead were children, The Associated Press news agency reported, citing a city official.

More than five dozen people were injured and 13 people were still in critical condition in the hospital, said Stefan Ringel, a senior adviser to Mayor Adams.

Firefighters work outside an apartment building after a fire in the Bronx [Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo]

Some 200 firefighters were dispatched to put out the blaze. Its cause was not immediately known, the city’s fire department commissioner, Daniel Nigro, told reporters.

“Members found victims on every floor in stairwells and were taking them out in cardiac and respiratory arrest,” he said.

Nigro said the smoke had spread to every floor of the building, likely because the door to the apartment where it started was left open, and that victims had suffered from significant smoke inhalation.