At least seven people, including four minors, have died and four others have been injured in a fire that broke out early Thursday morning on the top floor of a seven-storey building in the Moulins district, a popular area of the French city of Nice, the city’s police have reported. The police force is investigating the incident with the initial hypothesis that it may have been an intentional arson attack, according to prosecutor Damien Martinelli.
“Last night, shortly before 3am, a fire broke out on the top floor of a seven-storey building in the Moulins district of Nice,” the prefecture of the French region of Alpes-Maritimes had previously reported on its X account, the social network formerly known as Twitter.
“The toll is as follows: seven dead, one seriously injured, three slightly injured. The Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes expresses his deepest condolences for this terrible tragedy and thanks the emergency services and forces for their intervention,” the message added.
The Nice Public Prosecutor’s Office has detailed, in statements to the French television channel BFMTV, that among the fatalities, all of them from the same family of Comorian origin, there are four minors aged 5, 7, 10 and 17. The latter died after jumping out of a window to try to escape the flames. The other three deceased are two adult women and one man.
The prefect of Alpes-Maritimes, Hugues Moutouh, said that three other residents who were in the affected plant were injured, including a 47-year-old person who jumped out of a window to escape the fire. Two of the injured are in serious condition, so it is not ruled out that the death toll could rise in the coming hours.
Five other people were rescued by firefighters from the windowsills of the block of flats.
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“The criminal trail is under consideration,” said prosecutor Martinelli shortly afterwards, standing next to the building in question, adding that an investigation had been launched into the charge of arson causing deaths.
The official did not specify what evidence points to a crime, but said that experts from the Marseille police laboratory were going to the scene of the crime “to carry out examinations at the scene of the crime.” Some media outlets claim that the authorities suspect that the cause of the fire may have been three hooded men who were seen entering the building shortly before the fire broke out.
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