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NEW YORK - Hundreds of people jammed the streets around a modest Islamic centre for the funeral of 10 immigrants from Mali, nine of them children, who died last week in the city's deadliest fire in 17 years.
Police closed several city blocks to accommodate the crowds of mourners and onlookers who gathered to watch and pray as the 10 plywood coffins were brought into the service.
"It is terrible, people come to this country to provide a better life for their children," said Djibril Camara, a Malian immigrant.
Men and women wept openly as Muslim prayers echoed down the streets where money transfer shops and advertisements for flights to West Africa underscored the heavy immigrant presence in the Bronx neighbourhood.
Onlookers lining the road sang hymns as the caskets arrived but went silent as the funeral began.
Muslim men and women who were unable to get into the centre prayed on tarpaulins or spread their coats on the street and removed their shoes to join in prayers broadcast from inside
The blaze killed the wife and four children of a taxi driver who raced to the scene in his cab after receiving a call from his wife when the fire broke out.
The other five children belonged to another family who lived in the building. Those five children will be buried in Mali.
Investigators believe a space heater started the fire, which sent dense smoke through the building where 22 people lived.
Although firefighters arrived within minutes of being called and quickly extinguished the fire, most of the victims already were dead.
Religious leaders and ordinary citizens from other communities in the area went to the service to pay their respects.
"It is a chance for the communities to come together and to heal together," said Simone Pascal, a Protestant pastor who came with several other women. the cultural centre.
Dignitaries including Sen. Hillary Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited with the victims' fathers.
George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees baseball team whose stadium is in the neighbourhood, offered to pay for the funerals and officials at the Islamic centre said more than US$20,000 ($29,137) had been raised to help survivors of the fire.
Mourners expressed hope that the tragedy and the outpouring of sympathy would help improve ties between Muslim immigrants and the rest of the community.
"Thank you, America. Thank you for being here with us. America is a great country," shouted one Muslim man after the funeral.
- REUTERS
