Police probe Kenyan hotel fires

POLICE in the Kenyan Indian Ocean port of Mombasa are investigating the cause of a fire that swept through four beachfront hotels last night, forcing 650 European tourists to flee.

Mombasa police chief John Aloo said they were trying to determine how the fire broke out in one hotel and then rapidly engulfed the other three structures. All were made of cinder block and coral rag and had highly flammable palm-thatch roofs known locally as makuti.

Kai Wulff, managing director of African Safari Club, the company that owns all four hotels, said that after spending the night in other hotels the company owns in the area, guests were returning to their original rooms to collect their belongings.