Migrants torch Greek camp after refugee deaths

Angry migrants set fire to a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on Thursday after a woman and a six-year-old child died following a gas cylinder explosion, local police said.

The explosion occurred while the 66-year-old woman was cooking, police said, adding that the child's mother and four-year-old sibling were hospitalised with serious injuries.

Firefighters arrived at the scene in the Moria camp on Lesbos to try to put out the flames.

Ensuing clashes between migrants and police left six refugees slightly injured.

Some migrants fled the camp after the blast but had since returned and calm was being restored, a police source said.

Moria has a capacity for 3,500 people but currently houses more than 5,000.

Part of the camp was badly damaged in a fire on 19 September during clashes between migrants and police, and thousands had to be moved out before returning two days later.

Several fires and clashes have erupted in refugee camps on the Greek islands, where nearly 66,000 refugees and migrants became stranded after the European Union signed a deal that was aimed at stemming the influx of migrants.

In July, a protest broke out at the Diavata migrant camp in northern Greece after a young Syrian woman died from apparent heart failure.

Around 150 Syrians marched towards the nearby city of Thessaloniki in protest, demanding better health services in their state-run camp.

They temporarily blocked a local highway before returning to the migrant centre.

Greece's public health watchdog has warned that many of the camps in the north of the country – created out of abandoned industrial facilities and warehouses – are ill-suited as long-term accommodation.

The government says it is in the process of building other facilities to relocate the migrants from the camps in question.

Agencies contributed to this report.