1 suspect arrested in connection with Paris fire outbreak which claimed 8 lives

French authorities have arrested a woman who is being investigated for possible arson following a fire outbreak which ripped through an apartment building in a wealthy Paris neighbourhood.

Over 200 firefighters were seen battling the blaze in the French capital’s high-end 16th arrondissement which claimed no less than eight lives and caused injuries to at least 31 people, including six firefighters.

Reports say firefighters who started battling the inferno at about 1am local time (midnight GMT), and were able extinguish it after several hours later, described the area as a “scene of incredible violence”.

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“I heard a woman screaming in the street, crying for help,” a witness Jacqueline Ravier, who lives across the street from the building, told the Associated Press news agency.

She said shaken residents were evacuated and brought to her building and the one adjacent to it.

Ravier described seeing “a young man in his underwear”, blackened by smoke, and a woman motionless on the ground outside.

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