Police are hunting three arson suspects after a fire in an apartment building killed seven people in the southern French city of Nice, the country’s prime minister said.
The dead included three children aged five, seven and 10 years old and a 17-year-old who tried to escape by jumping from a window, Gabriel Attal added.
The apartment is located in the low-income neighbourhood of Les Moulins, known as a drug-dealing hub, in the west of the city.
“What happened here, this fire, is absolutely awful and revolting,” Attal told reporters at the scene, adding that “the investigation is ongoing, three individuals are being sought”.
Anthony Borré, a deputy mayor in Nice, said earlier that surveillance footage showed three men wearing balaclavas in the vicinity.
The apartment was occupied by a family believed to have Comoran origins, said the regional prefect, Hugues Moutouh, referring to the southern African island nation.
Ten people were inside when the fire broke out and rescuers were alerted at about 2.30am local time (01.30 BST)on Thursday to the blaze on the building’s seventh floor.
Neighbours hurriedly dragged mattresses in front of the building to break the fall of those jumping out of windows. Four police were in psychological care after witnessing the scene.
France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said on social media that the quick arrival of firefighters “probably prevented more deaths”.
The Nice prosecutor, Damien Martinelli, said investigators were looking into a “criminal” cause for the fire. “In light of the initial evidence, I have opened an investigation into acts of arson leading to death,” he said at the scene.
Borré said: “These actions are serious, they are barbaric,” adding that he hoped for “a strong response” from authorities once the investigation was over.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he shared Nice’s emotion after the fire, posting on social media that his thoughts were “with the loved ones of those who died”.
The blaze probably started on the building’s second floor and spread through the staircase to higher floors, authorities said. Rescuers said three people were taken to hospital including one with life-threatening injuries after jumping from a window.
Firefighters who were confronted by a “raging apartment fire” on the seventh floor carried out three aerial ladder rescues and evacuated dozens.
“There were flames in the staircase and smoke was entering under the door,” said Soibrata, who lived on the fifth floor. “I woke the children up and called the firefighters who told us to put wet towels under the doors and go on the balcony” from where they were rescued, she said.
Soibrata, who did not give her last name, and others in the building said the wait for firefighters had been much longer than the “10 minutes” Martinelli said it took for them to arrive.
Neighbours sprayed water on parasols and furniture on adjacent balconies to prevent falling burning debris from setting the rest of the building on fire, they said.
Twenty people were evacuated to a temporary shelter, with Nice’s mayor, Christian Estrosi, saying a crisis unit would be set up to help anyone affected by the fire.