The country’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said at the scene of the fire that it was too early to draw conclusions about the cause, but acknowledged the building housed a squatter and was a known drug dealers’ hangout.

Darmanin praised the work of firefighters, who he said arrived 12 minutes after being alerted soon after 03:00 and "were able to save 15 people by taking considerable risks to their own lives, scaling the building from the outside ... saving children and babies".

19 people were wounded in the blaze, including four who were still in a critical condition in hospital, authorities said, and about 100 residents were having to be rehoused. The five children who died were aged between three and 15.

The fire started on the ground floor of a seven-storey block of flats in one of Lyon’s poorer suburbs and spread rapidly to the upper floors, filling the stairwells with smoke.

'We all know each other, it’s really terrible'

Witnesses described panicked occupants of the building screaming for help as smoke billowed from the windows. "I heard people shouting ‘help, help, help, help us’," said Assed Belal, a young resident of the neighbourhood.

"There were people on the ground, others stuck on the balconies and the firefighters had difficulty intervening because of the trees," Belal told Agence France-Presse. "We all know each other, it’s really terrible – I don’t have the words."

He said friends had told him they managed to catch a 10-year-old boy dropped from an upper floor by his mother. Another witness, Mohamed, told local media he was woken by screams. "We wanted to help people, but the smoke was too thick," he said.

The fire was first reported to emergency services at 03:12 and by 03:25 about 170 firefighters and 65 fire trucks were at the site. Two of the 170 firefighters at the scene suffered light injuries while battling the flames.

BBC