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M. Continuo

Fire hits German home to people of Turkish origin


    BERLIN (Reuters) - A fire broke out late on Friday in a building in western Germany housing people of Turkish origin, police said, two weeks after nine people were killed in a similar blaze. No one was killed in Friday's fire.

    Six children and four adults were briefly held in hospitalfor observation after inhaling smoke from the fire, which brokeout in the cellar of the building in the town of Gelsenkirchen.Police said the cause was not clear.

    Thirty two people of Turkish origin were registered asliving in the house. Earlier this month, a blaze in anapartment block in the western town of Ludwigshafen killed ninepeople of Turkish origin and heightened community tension.

    The cause of the Ludwigshafen fire is also unknown butspeculation has been rife in the local Turkish community and inTurkish media that it was a racially motivated arson attack.

    Turkish investigators flew to Germany to help the policeinvestigation into the Ludwigshafen fire and Turkish PrimeMinister Tayyip Erdogan visited the site and called for calm.

    (Reporting by Paul Carrel; editing by Philippa Fletcher)