Some 48,000 chickens were killed in a fire at a poultry farm in the Utrecht village of Hekendorp early on Tuesday evening.

The chickens were in an 80-metre long barn which was almost completely destroyed in the blaze.
The cause of the fire is not yet clear.
Fires at poultry farms are not uncommon. In January, at least 18,000 chickens were killed in a fire on a factory farm in the province of Brabant when one of the four sheds burst into flames.
In July 2011, 170,000 died in a similar fire in Drenthe. In May last year, 20,000 perished in a fire near Utrecht, while 45,000 died in a fire in October 2010.