BRUSSELS, Oct. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 11 people have died and 15 were hospitalized after a fire set buildings ablaze for four hours at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

A paramedics van is seen on the scene of a fire that swept through a detention center at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport overnight. (AFP)

    Schiphol Mayor Michel Bezuijen told a press conference at the airport on Thursday that all the dead were detainees and were illegal in the Netherlands. But their nationalities are not yet known.

    "The death toll could get worse," said the mayor, adding that some police and fire officers got injured when they were trying to extinguish the fire.

    The blaze broke out around Wednesday midnight in a detention center which houses around 350 people. Most of them are either refused entry or awaiting deportation from the Netherlands.

A bus carrying inmates leaves a detention centre at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport Oct. 27.  (Reuters)

    Forty-three people were said to be in the wing that caught fire. The cause of the blaze is still unknown.

    Up to 12 cells in the block were damaged.

    Reporters at the scene said the roofs of the cells had been destroyed but walls were only partly damaged.

    An inmate at the center told Dutch media that guards had initially ignored their warnings of a fire.

    "They didn't open the door. They kept us locked up. Our throats started hurting. We were kicking and screaming," the prisoner said.

A police van with inmates prepares to leave a detention centre at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport Oct. 27. (Reuters)

    Some of the detainees have been transferred to other detention centers in the Netherlands.

    Helicopters were being used to search for several prisoners who are believed to have escaped from the center. Police said three detainees who had tried to escape were arrested.

    The block, located on the east side of the airport, is surrounded by a three-meter barbed wire fence.

    This is the second time that fire has broken out at Schiphol airport's prison complex. Enditem