Hundreds of demonstrators, mostly from Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal, rallied Sunday in protest of the French government outside the apartment building devastated by a fire that left 17 dead on Friday.

They chanted slogans accusing French Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Cohesion, Jean-Louis Borloo and French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. French President Jacques Chirac and Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe were also singled out for criticism.

The protest was organized by groups campaigning for the homeless and those living in substandard housing, with the backing of anti-racist and human rights organizations.

Paris municipal authorities said that families that had escaped the blaze could start visiting new apartments in Paris Monday.

A fire hit overnight from Thursday to Friday an apartment building in southeastern Paris, killing 14 children and three adults of the 133 occupants of Malian, Senegalese, Gambian and Ivorian origin.

Another blaze in April killed 24 people in a hotel in downtown Paris providing temporary accommodation for mostly African families.

Source: Xinhua