4-15-2005
The cause of the blaze is still unclear
The cause of the blaze is still unclear
At least 13 people have died and about 50 people have been injured in a fire at a hotel in central Paris, a fire service spokesman said.
At least 10 of the wounded were in a serious condition after the blaze in the city's central 9th arrondissement.
The fire, which broke out at about 0200 (0000 GMT), gutted the six-storey Paris-Opera hotel.
Some of the guests leapt from windows to escape the flames, the AFP news agency reported.
Makeshift morgue
"The toll is provisional because we fear we might find more victims on the upper floors," fire service spokesman Laurent Vibert told the Reuters news agency.
"It was a serious fire. You don't often see such fires in Paris. There was only one staircase and the fire broke out on the lower floors. There was no explosion," he said.
Mr Vibert told the AFP news agency that 76 people had been living in the 32-room hotel on rue de Provence.
Witnesses said they were mostly families of African origin.
An emergency medical centre and a makeshift morgue were set up in the nearby Galeries Lafayette department store.
Dozens of fire trucks and 10 ambulances were at the scene. The flames were extinguished by 0330 (0130 GMT).
Interior minister Dominique de Villepin has visited the scene, his office said.
Fatal blaze guts Parisian hotel