Four killed as they jump from windows to escape Paris blaze

Five people died and almost 60 were injured, including several young children, after a fire ripped through a block of flats in Paris early today.

Four of the victims were killed by jumping from high windows to escape while one was burnt alive.

Six others were in a life-threatening condition this morning. Two firemen were injured.

Fire service spokesman Frederic Grosjean said all were believed to have been overcome by flames and smoke in their sleep.

The blaze in Menilmontant, a densely populated area of the 20th arrondissement, is the latest of many to blight the French capital's public safety record.

Scores of people, mainly immigrants, have died in similar circumstances in the last 10 years with the authorities accused of lacking the political will to do anything about the scandal. The apartments in Menilmontant did not have fire escapes, or even smoke alarms, and many of the dead were trapped in the tightly packed stairwell when the fire broke out soon after 3am.

Menilmontant has numerous overcrowded apartments, said Frederique Calandra, the mayor of the arrondissement. He said the block, in an area known as the Labyrinth Estate, "was very difficult to reach". It is privately owned and mainly made up of homes and artists' studios, with "narrow and outdated" wooden stairs, he said.

About 300 firemen fought the fire, which was put out by about 5.30am. Six of the injured were today in intensive care at nearby hospitals - police said six children were among them.

Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe said the building was not lacking in safety standards. "It is up to a judicial probe to explain the fire and its possible origin," he said.

There are frequent marches to protest against unsafe buildings in Paris, which has not updated its housing stock in the way cities such London have done. The lobby group Right to Housing says only 60,000 apartments or houses are built in the public sector each year, half the amount needed.

In 2005 a blaze in a house in the 13th arrondissement saw 14 children among the dead, while 21 died in a fire in a budget hotel in the same year. Nicolas Sarkozy, who was interior minister at the time, said: "We must close down all these squats and all these buildings to prevent such tragedies".