Related: Chirac orders inquiry into Paris apartment fire

Policemen and rescuers stand near the site where fire broke out through a building in central Paris early August 30, 2005.  (Xinhua/AFP photo)

    BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhuanet)-- Seven people were killed and 14 others injured in a blaze in a Paris apartment building housing African immigrants, firefighters said Tuesday.

    The fire started about 10 pm yesterday on the first floor of a five-story building in the Marais district, according to an unidentified fire services spokesman.

    Among the killed there was a child who died in hospital. The bodies of the six others were found in the building, firefighters said.

    District officials said a dozen families from the Ivory Coast lived in the building, whose conditions authorities said were "absolutely inadmissible and dangerous."

    The fire is the third this year to kill immigrants in the French capital. A fire on Aug. 26 in an apartment building in the 13th district killed 17 people and injured 30. On April 15, a blaze at a hotel near the Opera theater killed 20, including eight children. Enditem

    (Agencies)