Burning cigarette started fire that killed Irish students

A burning cigarette is reportedly being blamed for starting the fire that killed two Irish students in France last Friday.

Reports this morning said experts had concluded that a cigarette caused the house fire which killed the two young women in the town of Lorient.

Twenty-one-year-old Patricia McDonald, from Cootehill in Co Cavan, and 20-year-old Carol Nolan, from the Walkinstown area of Dublin, died after they were overcome by smoke during the fire.

They had been on a foreign-exchange programme at the University of Southern Brittany.

Their families were due to arrive in the area yesterday to make arrangements to bring their bodies back to Ireland.