Body of child found in Paris hotel

PARIS -- Firefighters sorting through the debris of a burned-out Paris hotel found the body of a small child Sunday, raising the death toll from Friday's blaze to 22, police said. Half of the victims were children.

The fire at the Paris Opera hotel, housing mostly people in need who were placed there by social services, was Paris' worst in recent memory.

Police said firefighters digging through debris early Sunday found the body of a young child. The body of a woman was found Friday night, hours after the blaze had been extinguished. The nationalities of the dead have not been provided.

The overcrowded 32-room hotel, in the 9th district popular with tourists, was meant to accommodate 61 people, but at least 90 people -- many of them Africans -- were known to be living there.

The blaze was believed to have started shortly after 2 a.m. 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 risked collapse.

The hotel's fire prevention system had been checked March 24, and four recommendations to improve safety were issued. However, the measures were insufficient 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.

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