Four people were killed and 17 injured when a fire, believed to be an arson attack, broke out overnight at a tourist hotel in central Paris, police and firefighters said yesterday.
Police said a 36-year-old man was arrested in a drunken state shortly after the fire broke out at the Hotel du Palais, a five-storey building on the quayside of the River Seine next to the Theatre du Chatelet and close to the Louvre in the central first arrondissement (district).
The man, who was under supervision in a nearby hospital, had a previous conviction for arson, police said.
The blaze began at about 3 p.m. in the lift shaft of the hotel in which around 20 people were staying, mainly foreign tourists. The flames spread quickly via the shaft to the roof. Of the four dead, two at least were asphyxiated. One woman survivor suffered serious burns and another broke her leg when she jumped from a fourth-floor window.
The Italian consulate said two young women from Sicily were among the dead.
The nationality of the other two was not released.
"We heard the alarm and immediately got out of bed," said Mr Colin Giles, a British survivor who was with his wife in a second-floor room. "I soaked the sheets in water and put them by the door to stop the smoke coming in. The firemen arrived five minutes later," Mr Giles said. He and the other survivors escaped via the windows.
The Theatre du Chatelet, one of the capital's most prestigious, was undamaged.