Chirac urges action after Paris blaze

French President Jacques Chirac ordered action on fire safety yesterday after seven immigrants, including four children, died in a blaze in a rundown building in central Paris only days after a similar tragedy.

Monday night's fire raised new questions about the conservative government's fire safety record and housing policies, coming just three days after 17 African immigrants died in a blaze in another district of the capital.

Mr Chirac expressed his horror at the latest fire, offered his condolences to bereaved families and ordered a prompt investigation into what he called "another dreadful fire".

"What seems to me to be vital today, after this second drama, is that we, together with all the relevant authorities... take the measures needed to avoid dramas such as this," he said during a visit to the city of Reims northeast of Paris.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin would shortly announce strong new measures, Mr Chirac said. The Prime Minister's office said an official inquiry into the fire was under way.

Firefighters struggled for an hour to bring Monday night's blaze under control after it broke out in the stairwell of a building in the historic Marais district of the French capital, fire officials said.

Some terrified residents jumped from windows in an effort to escape the flames.

A fire brigade spokesman said six people died at the scene. A hospital spokesman said a child who fell from the building during the fire later died from injuries.

Five firefighters were among 13 people injured. Two people were in a serious condition in hospital.

Immigrants' rights groups and opposition politicians have accused the government of complacency over housing conditions for immigrants, which first hit the headlines in April when a fire killed 24 people at a Paris hotel used by immigrants.

Pierre Aidenbaum, mayor of the Paris district where Monday's fire broke out, told France Info radio around a dozen families from West Africa's Ivory Coast had lived in the building.