Fire kills 17 in Paris hotel used by immigrants

PARIS - A fire has swept through a central Paris hotel used by immigrants and tourists, killing at least 17 people including 7 children, fire officials said.

About 50 people were also injured, including US and African nationals, and the death toll could rise, a fire brigade spokesman said. The French Red Cross said it was one of Paris' worst blazes for 20 years.

There was no explosion and no immediate suspicion of foul play in the fire, which gutted the six-storey Paris-Opera hotel near the Galeries Lafayette luxury department store. It broke out after two am (12 noon NZT) and its cause was unclear.

Some victims tried to save themselves by jumping from upper floors and about 50 were treated in the Galeries Lafayette store which was used as a makeshift hospital, witnesses said.

"Seventeen people are dead," a fire brigade spokesman said. "You don't often see such fires in Paris. There was only one staircase and the fire broke out on the lower floors. There was no explosion," said another fire brigade spokesman, Laurent Vibert.

The fire began when many of the victims were asleep. Witnesses said panic broke out after the fire began on a lower floor and part of the stairway collapsed.

About 15 people were in a serious condition suffering from burns, trauma and the effects of smoke inhalation.

"The tragic fire ... is one of the most distressing disasters to have struck Paris," President Jacques Chirac said in a statement. An inquiry would determine the cause of the fire as soon as possible, he added.

Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin visited the scene and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin ordered measures to house the hotel guests elsewhere.

The fire was largely extinguished by dawn but smoke seeped from the blackened windows of the hotel's top two floors long afterwards.

Firefighters swarmed around the building as Parisians went to work and the stench of smoke filled the air. In total, some 250 firefighters were deployed to the hotel.

Seventy-six people were thought to have been in the hotel when the fire broke out.

- REUTERS