A fire tore through a six-storey Paris apartment block housing African immigrants yesterday, killing 17 people, at least six of them children, 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.

More than 20 people were injured in the blaze in southern Paris, a spokesman for Paris's hospitals said.

A little boy in pyjamas clutched a toy animal as he was led away from the building by emergency officials.

Several men and women, some carrying children in their arms, were also evacuated.

The fire will fuel a debate on the living conditions of immigrants in France. In April, a blaze at a Paris hotel used by immigrants killed 24 people, half of them children.

Smoke could still be seen billowing out of windows of the apartment block on the Vincent Auriol boulevard hours after yesterday's blaze was brought under control.

"This building was run down. I knew something was going to happen. It was dangerous," said Benita, who lives in a neighbouring apartment building.

The hospital spokesman said six children had been killed. A police source said the number was higher.

"The number of dead children will certainly be more than six but we cannot say anymore for now," the source said, adding that difficulties in identifying badly burned bodies made it difficult to establish the exact number of dead infants.

Police said some 30 adults and 100 children had lived in the building, many of them from African countries such as Mali, Senegal or Ivory Coast. Most of the casualties were immigrants.

Police cordoned off the area, near the river Seine and the Jardin des Plantes botanical garden. More than 200 firefighters and dozens of ambulance workers and police were at the scene.

"This dreadful disaster plunges all of France into mourning," President Jacques Chirac said in a statement. Martin Hirsch from Emmaus, a group which helps people with housing difficulties, said large families with many children had used the building as temporary accommodation.

Opposition politicians said the fire highlighted a severe housing problem in Paris. The hotel blaze in April was one of the deadliest fires in the French 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 when the April fire broke out in the middle of the night. Police said later they had detained a young woman and that she had admitted accidentally causing the fire.

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