Sunday, September 4 2005 17:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

L'Hay-les-Roses (France): Fire ripped through a high-rise apartment building, south of Paris early today (Sept 4, 2005), killing 12 people, two of them children, French officials said. Four people were detained in connection with the suspected arson attack.

The fire, the fourth deadly blaze in the Paris area since April, was quickly extinguished by fire fighters but 12 people died, mostly as a result of inhaling toxic smoke, officials said. About 500 people were in the 18-storey low-cost apartment building.

Sixteen people were injured, at least 10 seriously, local fire brigade spokesman Alain Antonini said. Several were rushed to hospitals in the area.

Witnesses described the screams of panicked residents as the blaze flared through the entrance hall of the building in the town of L'Hay-les-Roses in the Val-de-Marne region, south of Paris.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said in a statement that an investigation was under way into the fire that could be of criminal origin.

Mayor Patrick Seve said most of those who died had tried to flee the building through the entrance and residents who stayed inside were not injured as temperatures soared.

"It was the people who rushed outside who met with temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius, smoke and asphyxiation," he said. "That's what caused the catastrophic toll."

Seve said witnesses claimed to have seen a group of youth, who lived in the building, start the fire. Police said four people had been taken in for questioning.