One of the six injured people is said to be in a life-threatening condition.
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The victims were mostly young people aged between 18 and 25, the Paris-Normandie news website reports (in French).
More than 80 firefighters battled the early Saturday blaze at the downtown Cuba Libre bar in the city of Rouen, Mayor Yvon Robert said, calling the fire “very brief”.
An official told AFP the polystyrene ceiling tiles discharged a gas which poisoned the casualties: “The group was unable to leave the cellar and most of the victims died of asphyxiation”.
The country of France is on high alert due to several terrorist attacks that have taken place on their soil.
“I was at the bar on the ground floor having a drink, when we saw the flames – it was like a flame-thrower, everything happened so fast”, she told reporters.
It is thought a birthday cake with lit candles may have been dropped, triggering the inferno at around midnight. “We got scared, we stepped away”, she said.
An investigation is underway and local media report the police are questioning 11 witnesses. Rouen, which is in the Normandy region of France, is just a few miles away from a village where two teens killed a Catholic priest last month.
A bar fire in the northern French city of Rouen has killed at least 13 young people.
Authorities expect the death toll to rise, the newspaper added. “Compassion and support to the families”. Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.
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50 firefighters came to the site quickly enough to stop development of the fire – the bar was next to the famous Rouen Cathedral.
