Paris hotel fire kills at least 20

PEOPLE jumped from windows or screamed for rescue from flames as a pre-dawn fire roared through a Paris hotel used to house needy African families yesterday morning, killing at least 20 people, half of them children.

More than 50 people were injured, 11 seriously. The fire was thought to have started in a first-floor breakfast room of the one-star Paris Opera hotel in the capital’s 9th district, a popular tourist area, fire officials said.

Eight hours later, rescue workers were still pulling bodies from the scorched building.