Teenage girls confess to starting fire

THREE teenage girls have confessed to starting a fire in a suburban Paris housing project over the weekend that killed 16 people, including three children.

The fire in a 19-storey building south of Paris was the third fatal blaze in the Paris area in nine days. The death toll rose after a man died in a hospital, where seven others were being treated for serious injuries, police said.

Three teenagers taken in for questioning on Sunday confessed to having started the fire, police said. Two of the suspects were 18 years old, the other was 16, police said.

Witnesses claimed to have seen a group of youths who lived in the building start the fire, said Patrick Seve, mayor of the town of L'Hay-les-Roses, near Orly airport, where the building was located.

The fire is believed to have broken out in the lobby of the building before raging up a stairwell at least three floors. Some residents jumped from windows as the blaze flared through the building's entrance.

Authorities were investigating possible arson in an August 26 fire that killed 14 African children and three adults in a run-down Paris apartment building. Three days later, another fire killed seven in a building used by squatters.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy suggested on French television that copycats were at work.

"Each time there is a news story, sometimes that gives ideas to people who then turn into criminals," Mr Sarkozy said, promising severe punishment for anyone found guilty of arson.

In response to the fires, the government has announced plans to quickly build more low-income apartments, requisitioning some land to do so. Mr Sarkozy ordered buildings considered dangerous evacuated a process that began last week.