Sixteen killed in Paris apartment block fire

PARIS - A fire ripped through a seven-storey Paris apartment block on Friday, killing 16 people and injuring 22, French officials said.

"Two hundred firefighters are at the scene," said a fire brigade spokesman.

He said the cause of the fire in a southern area of the French capital was not immediately known.

French radio said many immigrants lived in the apartment block and that children were among the casualties.

In April, a fire at a six-storey Paris hotel killed 22 people, half of them children.

The hotel blaze was one of the deadliest fires in the capital for years.

Some people tried to save themselves by jumping from windows and others tried to save their children by throwing them from upper floors after the fire broke out in the middle of the night.

The hotel near the Galeries Lafayette luxury department store housed many immigrants.

- REUTERS