Four girls admit starting deadly Paris fire

PARIS - Four girls admitted on Monday to starting a fire in a high-rise apartment block in Paris which killed 16 people, including three children, officials said.

The girls admitted during police questioning to starting the fire in a letter box in the hallway of the 18-storey building, a public prosecutor involved in the case said.

The letter box belonged to a former friend, with whom they had fallen out.

The weekend fire was the third major one in the French capital in just over a week.

Most of the victims were killed by smoke and fumes that rapidly swept through the building in the southern suburbs of the city.

Unlike the two other fires in the past 10 days, Sunday's blaze did not sweep through rundown housing for immigrants but was in an apartment block aimed at low-income households, known as an HLM, which housed about 800 people in 110 flats.

The fires have raised questions over the safety and the treatment of immigrants, and President Jacques Chirac has demanded action to prevent any similar tragedies.

- REUTERS