Fourteen people died and at least six were injured after a fire broke out on Monday at a workshop for disabled people in southwestern Germany.

Markus Straub, a fire brigade spokesman, said it was not yet known what started the fire at the building in Titisee-Neustadt, a town in the Black Forest near the city of Freiburg.

The workshop employs 120 people with either mental or physical disabilities in a variety of jobs including metalwork, woodwork and electrical installation. It is run by the Roman Catholic church's Caritas organisation.

Up to 100 firefighters tackled the blaze at the modern, three-storey building and dozens of paramedics attended.

There were usually 100-120 people in the building on a workday, police spokesman Karl-Heinz Schmid told Suedwestrundfunk radio. "It will take days to investigate what caused the fire," he said.

Titisee-Neustadt mayor Armin Hinterseh said the centre's buildings were quite new. "It is devastating. We now have to find out how it happened," he told the Badische Zeitung newspaper.

Winfried Kretschmann, the state governor of Baden-Wüerttemberg, rushed to the scene according to his office.