Fire kills 17 in Paris building housing immigrants

PARIS:A fire tore through a six-storey Paris apartment block housing African immigrants on Friday, killing 17 people -- about half of them children, French officials said.They said the blaze broke out in the stairwell of the traditional Parisian apartment building just after midnight when most residents would have been sleeping. It was brought under control two hours later but the cause was not immediately known.
"I heard children cry, families scream. Some children were yelling for their mothers and fathers," Oumar Cisse told reporters after he was evacuated from the building.About 30 people were injured in the blaze in southern Paris.
A little boy in pyjamas, who seemed to be of African origin, clutched a toy animal as he was led away from the building by emergency officials. A number of men and women, some carrying children in their arms, were also evacuated.
Police said some 30 adults and 100 children had lived in the apartment block, many of them from African countries such as Mali. Most of the casualties were immigrants.