Child found dead after Roma camp blaze in France
An eight-year-old Bulgarian girl was found dead after a fire in a Roma camp near Paris on Wednesday.The fire started around 5.00am and may have been caused by a candle, although local politicians believe it could have been avoided.
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About 200 people, Turkish-speaking Bulgarian and Roma Romanians, lived in the 500-square-metre shanty-town.
A quarter of the camp was destroyed by the fire, which appears to have started accidentally.
But the Communist Party, which controls the local council, issued a statement insisting that conditions in the camp make safety impossible.
"The whole community lives in the most extreme precariousness and any real social action is made impossible," it said.
The Roma camp is mostly built with makeshift shelters and cheap materials that are highly flammable.
"Where do I sleep now? What should we do? We had nothing, we lost everything" one father of a family told the Mediapart website.
Some NGO representatives accused the authorities of inaction.
The Communist Party called for European financial aid and said that these camps are " a shame for our country".
The local prefecture of police accused the Bobigny council of being partly responsible for the tragedy for allowing the residents to set up camp in potentially dangerous conditions.
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