Victims include three children and a teenager at apartment building in Les Moulins neighbourhood
Police are hunting three arson suspects after a fire in an apartment building killed seven people in the southern French city of Nice, the country’s prime minister said.
The dead included three children aged five, seven and 10 years old and a 17-year-old who tried to escape by jumping from a window, Gabriel Attal added.
The apartment is located in the low-income neighbourhood of Les Moulins, known as a drug-dealing hub, in the west of the city.
“What happened here, this fire, is absolutely awful and revolting,” Attal told reporters at the scene, adding that “the investigation is ongoing, three individuals are being sought”.
Anthony Borré, a deputy mayor in Nice, said earlier that surveillance footage showed three men wearing balaclavas in the vicinity.
The apartment was occupied by a family believed to have Comoran origins, said the regional prefect, Hugues Moutouh, referring to the southern African island nation.
Ten people were inside when the fire broke out and rescuers were alerted at about 2.
