MANAMA: At least 13 people were killed in a fire that broke out in a labour camp in the Bahraini capital Manama on Friday, the civil defence department said.

Hundreds of thousands of foreign labourers, mainly from the Asian subcontinent, work in the island kingdom.

The Bahrain News Agency quoted the acting head of civil defence as saying that firefighters had found the bodies of 13 people inside the three-storey building.

One firefighter was injured and several people were rescued from the fire broke out on Friday afternoon, he said.

An investigation into the cause of the fire has started.