MADRID: Eight elderly people died in a fire that ripped through a care home near Zaragoza in northeastern Spain in the early hours of Sunday, a government official said.

Twelve other people were injured, two of them seriously, in the blaze in the small town of Cuarte de Huerva, the spokesman for the regional government of Aragon said.

The fire broke out at around 1 a.m. (2300 GMT) and police were still trying to find out what started it, he added. One of the injured was a carer.