Two men have died and two other people are in hospital following a fire at an apartment in Mallow in North Cork late last night.
The fire broke out at the upstairs apartment at Granary Court on St Joseph’s Road in the town at around 12.30am and the emergency services were alerted.
Two men, both aged 36, died in the fire while another man and woman were taken to Cork University Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
Gardaí were first to arrive at the scene and rescued the two people who survived.
They found one person in the corridor and the other in a room in the apartment.
When Gardaí tried to re-enter building, they were stopped by excessive smoke.
Fire services found the two men dead in the top floor apartment of the three storey building a short time later.
It is understood that one of the dead men is from Dublin and the other is from Mallow but it is unclear if they were living or visiting the apartment where a party was taking place.
The men were pronounced dead at the scene of the upstairs apartment.
Their bodies have been removed to Cork University Hospital for post mortem.
Units from Mallow and Kanturk Fire Brigade fought the blaze bringing the fire under control about 3.30am while HSE emergency personnel and gardai from Mallow also attended at the scene.
The apartment, located in a three storey building at the back of the complex, was very badly damaged in the blaze.
Gardaí in Mallow are due to carry out a technical examination of the scene to establish the cause of the blaze but gardaí do not believe at this stage there is anything suspicious about the fire.
Gardaí said they believe there is no connection to the fire bomb incident that happened in the same complex two weeks ago.