A fire in a Berlin apartment block has killed eight people, including five children, and officials said they suspected arson was to blame.
The fire broke out last night in the stairwell of a five-storey building in the German capital's central Moabit district.
"Everything points to arson," interior minister, Ehrhart Koerting, told reporters today. Fire brigade officials said it looked like the fire started in prams parked in the building's entrance hall.
The service said it was the second highest death toll in a fire in Berlin since World War Two. Four of the victims were believed to have been Polish, the police said.
Mr Koerting said the building was also home to people of Arabic origin and some from the Balkans.
"Nothing suggests it was a politically motivated attack," public prosecutor Karl-Heinz Dalheimer told a news conference. The first of 150 firemen were on the scene within five minutes of being alerted to the fire, but by the time the blaze was extinguished 20 minutes later, eight people were dead.
"In their panic, the victims tried to escape by using the stairwell," a fire brigade spokesman said. "They would have been better off in their apartments." A total of 43 people were rescued, of which 15 were seriously injured and two were still in a critical condition in hospital. Most were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.