A large fire on Wednesday morning in two pig barns in the southern Dutch town of Merselo killed four to five thousand pigs and piglets. No people were injured.

The fire originated at half past five in the morning in an air cleaning system in one of the barns and soon moved on to hit the second one. A newspaper boy discovered the fire early in the morning and called for help.

The pig farm existed for 33 years and never experienced a fire before. The company had a total of three pig barns.

Firemen from the neighboring towns of Venray, Meerlo and Horst fought the fire and controlled the fire six hours after it started. Some 150 pigs from the smoke-filled barn were saved and were driven towards an adjacent field.

The fire attracted a large cloud of smoke over the village of Merselo in the southern Dutch province of Limburg. The roof of the stables partly contained asbestos and therefore health security measurements were carried out, but so far no asbestos seemed to be released.