Death toll in Paris hotel fire hits 22

Firefighters searching through the debris of a hotel fire in Paris found the body of a small child today, raising the death toll to 22.

The fire on Friday morning at the six-story Paris Opera hotel, housing mostly needy people placed there by social services, was the worst in recent memory in the French capital. The nationalities of the dead – half of which are believed to be children – have not been revealed.

The 32-room hotel was designed to accommodate 61 people, but at least 90 people – many of them Africans – were known to be living there at the time of the fire.

The blaze was thought to have started in a breakfast room shortly after 2am local time. An investigation for manslaughter has been opened, but officials suggested the probe could be lengthy, given the devastation caused by the fire. Parts of the fragile structure risk collapsing.

The hotel’s fire prevention system had been checked March 24, and four recommendations to improve safety were issued. However, the measures were not sufficient to close down the hotel, the police headquarters said.

Social services have relocated the survivors to another hotel in a Paris suburb, while families continued their search for loved ones.

The fire has claimed more victims than any fire in recent memory in the French capital. A 1973 blaze in an eastern Paris school killed 20 people, 16 of them students.