BERLIN.– At least 10 people have died in a fire which swept through mobile homes at a centre for the homeless in eastern Germany, police said.  

Five people were also treated in hospital after the blaze in the town of Halberstadt in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. 

The fire broke out in the early hours of Friday in one of the mobile homes and gutted the four other homes at the site. 

A police spokesman said an investigation was under way into the cause of the fire and also into how many people in total were housed in the mobile homes. 

According to lists kept by the centre, 15 people had spent the night in the homes, but police said the real number may have been higher.