BERLIN - German police said Thursday there was no evidence that arson was behind a deadly fire overnight in an apartment building inhabited by many foreigners, according to preliminary enquiries.
A 13-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man died from asphyxiation after a fire broke out in a first floor apartment in Freiburg im Breisgau in southwestern Germany, filling the stairwell with smoke, police said.
Around 60 people lived in the building including Germans as well as many foreigners of several nationalities.
Several buildings housing foreigners have gone up in flames in recent months in Germany.
On February 3 a blaze killed nine Turks in Ludwigshafen, southwestern Germany, and raised a storm both in Germany and Turkey where the media drew a parallel with racist blazes that killed Turkish women and girls in 1992 and 1993.
The Ludwigshafen prosecutor's office on March 4 ruled out a criminal act.
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04/17/2008 13:49 GMT