Strasbourg (AFP)

The investigators arrested a second suspect on Tuesday after the violent, presumably criminal, fire that ravaged a HLM in Schiltigheim, a suburb of Strasbourg, killing one 11-year-old child and 11 minor injuries in the night from Monday to Tuesday. .

"Investigative evidence has allowed the placement in custody this morning of a second individual", a young man of 22 years, told AFP Strasbourg Deputy Prosecutor Alexandre Chevrier.

The custody of a 23-year-old man, arrested in the night near the scene, was however lifted, this first suspect having been "totally put out of cause".

The criminal track "is privileged, but we have not yet been able to make a technical finding given the inventory," said Tuesday afternoon to AFP Alexandre Chevrier.

"Police services are working on both accidental and criminal assumptions," added a source close to the investigation.

Arrived to place shortly before 04:00 am, firefighters were confronted with a fire "very virulent" that ignited the building, a renovated Alsatian house, housing social housing on two floors, in the historic center of Schiltigheim. A total of eleven light wounded were rescued.

At the height of the incident, a hundred firefighters were mobilized.

The 11-year-old boy was found dead on the first floor of the building, while other members of his family managed to "escape the flames by jumping out the windows," according to the prosecutor's office.

Arrived early in the morning the father of the deceased child was taken care of by the relief, in shock, found a journalist from AFP.

"The mother suffers from the hip, one of the children suffers at the neck," said Dominique Schuffenecker, chief of staff of the prefect of Bas-Rhin.

- "Absolutely inadmissible" -

Schiltigheim mayor Danielle Dambach told AFP that most of the victims of the fire, including the deceased child, were members of a large family "of Central African origin" who had been living "for a long time" in his commune, at least 15 years old.

A psychological support cell was deployed at the town hall where a hundred people were taken care of. "The majority of them will find a home tonight and an emergency solution in a gym is being put in place when needed," according to the municipality.

"At this stage, we do not exclude the accidental or the intentional," said the mayor. The fire, she noted however, recalls the one who had declared on August 19 in another building of the commune, where an association sheltered families of foreign origin.

Anti-migrant tags claimed the fire a few days later on the walls of the town hall of a village in the Bas-Rhin. "It's still weird, why are buildings suddenly catching fire in the middle of the night?" Asked Ms. Dambach, calling to "stop this escalation".

"For several months now, I have been watching with consternation a wave of malicious acts in Strasbourg and Bas-Rhin Racist and anti-Semitic tags, arson, all these despicable gestures that I condemn firmly," he said. said.

Several associations have already announced a white march Saturday in tribute to the young boy killed and "to say stop racism".

maj-grd-juice-bra / ha / sd

© 2019 AFP