Five teenage girls have died and one man was seriously injured after a fire broke out at an “escape room” interactive game location, in the northern Polish city of Koszalin, officials said.

“The victims of this tragedy are 15-year-old children, girls celebrating a birthday,” interior minister Joachim Brudziński told broadcaster TVN24.

Fire spokesman Tomasz Kubiak confirmed that the dead were women, and told AFP that “one man with severe burns was taken to an intensive care unit”.

Investigators in Poland on Saturday blamed a gas leak in a heating system for the fire. Prosecutors said that carbon monoxide inhalation was the likely cause of the deaths.



A 26-year-old man employed at the location was taken to hospital with burns.



The Koszalin prosecutor Ryszard Gasiorowski said a leak in the bottled gas heating system at the location was a probable cause of the fire. Earlier, firefighters blamed faulty electric wiring and substandard security procedures.



Gasiorowski said the fire probably broke out in the reception room and blocked the employee’s way to evacuate the girls. Autopsies will be carried out to confirm the cause of the deaths.



He said firefighters who put out the blaze and other witnesses were being questioned. The condition of the injured employee did not immediately allow for him to be questioned.



Poland’s interior minister has ordered fire safety inspections at more than 1,000 escape room locations across the country. The first inspections were being held Saturday, the interior ministry said. Previously, there was no official requirement for fire safety certificates at such locations.

Escape rooms are popular around the world and offer a live-action experience in which players are locked in a room with one hour to figure out a series of clues and riddles to get out.