FRANCE: Whether by accident or criminal design, seven more African immigrants, including four children, were killed in a fire on Monday night.
Only four days earlier, 17 Africans, 14 of whom were children, perished in a similar fire in Paris's 13th arrondissement. In April, 24 Africans, including five children, died in a hotel fire near the Paris Opera.
The most recent fire broke out at about 10pm on Monday at number 8, Rue du Roi-Doré, near the Place de la Bastille.
The building had been used as a squat by immigrants from the Ivory Coast since December 1999, and was included on a list of 423 most dangerous buildings in the city.
The entire Fofana family - two children, father, and mother, who was pregnant with twins - were burned alive. They lived on the fifth - and top - floor.
Neighbours told of horrific screams coming from the blazing building. A second pregnant woman was among the fatalities.
A woman on the fourth floor pushed her six-year-old son out the window in the hope of saving him. She died in the fire, and the child died in hospital at 1am yesterday. When their husband/father learned of their deaths on returning from work, he had to be hospitalised for shock.
Abou Karamoko was one of three people critically injured. The squatters' representative in negotiations, Mr Karamoko jumped out of his first-floor window.
The authorities had found housing for families with legal residence papers, but the law forbids providing public housing to illegal aliens.
During a trip to the Marne region, president Jacques Chirac expressed his "consternation" over Monday night's fire.
"This situation is completely unworthy of the way we should receive men and women in our country, whatever their origins, whatever their nationality," he said. "It is essential that every effort be made to solve this problem."
By the time forensic scientists arrived, the centre of the building had caved in, making their investigation nearly impossible. The fire started on the ground or first floor and, like last week's blaze, swept upward through a wooden stairwell.
The building had no running water, but the city had installed a tap on the ground floor, so the squatters could carry water to their apartments in buckets. Children living there had been treated for lead poisoning from peeling paint.
The squatters pirated electricity from outside, and short circuits were a common occurrence.
Bertrand Delanoë, the socialist mayor of Paris, visited the scene of the fire during the night.
"There is an extremely serious problem of insalubrious buildings in Paris," he said. "I am asking the state to understand the situation. We want to be helped out, in particular by surrounding departments , who are rich and who receive very few poor people."
The city of Paris is spending €152 million over six years to rehabilitate 550 buildings like the one that burned down on Monday.
The central government has budgeted only €7 million per year for the same purpose.
The right-wing opposition in the city council blames Mr Delanoë's administration for failing to eradicate dangerous buildings. At a press conference tomorrow, prime minister Dominique de Villepin is expected to announce measures to spread the burden of immigrant housing more evenly across the Paris region.