All signs point to a technical defect and not arson causing the fire at a refugee shelter in Thuringia, eastern Germany, according to a press statement released by police on Tuesday afternoon (June 6).

The local state police said that the investigation into the fire at the shelter had wrapped up on Monday evening.

They said that "everything indicates that the cause of the fire was a technical defect, based on the current state of the investigation", adding that the official report from a fire expert of the state criminal police office had not yet been released. They also said that there were no signs of intentional arson.

One refugee died from smoke intoxication

The person that was found dead at the shelter after the fire very likely died in the blaze, police also said. They added that an autopsy revealed that smoke intoxication was the likely cause of death and no injuries not connected to the fire had been found. Investigators said they could not yet confirm the identity of the dead person, as checks were still ongoing (as of Tuesday afternoon). A nine-year old Ukrainian boy from the shelter has been missing since the fire, many believe it likely that he is the person who was found dead.

Parts of the facility have reportedly been cleared and local officials on Tuesday said that some of the occupants who had been evacuated during the fire would soon be moved back. Chief District Administrator Christiane Schmidt-Rose (of the conservative CDU party) said: "It is planned to move the residents who are currently in decentralized emergency housing in [the nearby small town of] Hermsdorf back to Apolda as soon as possible." She said local authorities were trying to find new housing in the area for residents of the parts of the shelter that had been destroyed by the fire.

NGO claims Ukrainian and Russian refugees got preferential treatment

The fire had broken out in the living quarters of a facility housing roughly 250 refugees and asylum seekers in the town of Apolda, in the eastern German state of Thuringia, early on Sunday morning.

On Monday (June 5), a local chapter of the sea-rescue and migrant advocacy organization Seebrücke tweeted criticism of how local authorities had handled the fire.

They claimed that shelter residents had told them they had to wait outside for hours with little food or drink, and that the evacuees had been divided up by nationalities, with Ukranians and Russians being prioritized.