At least five people were killed and two others seriously injured in a fire at a residential building in the suburb of Saint Denis, north of Paris on Monday evening, the fire service said, according to the New Straits Times.
Nine more people suffered from less serious injuries following the blaze, a spokesman said.
Firefighters at the scene were unable to identify the victims found in the rubble because of the severity of the blaze, the spokesman added.
Two of those injured had jumped out of the four-storey building to escape the fire, and luckily they were not in a critical condition following their jump, a statement issued by the Paris fire service and the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture said.
"The fourth floor of the building collapsed onto the third and the staircase is still weakened," the fire service spokesman explained.
The blaze was reported at around 7:30 pm local time and had been put under control by 10:30 pm.
"We don’t know where the fire began," deputy mayor for housing Stephane Peu told AFP after visiting the site of the incident.
The building was in the center of Saint-Denis and had not been deemed unsafe by authorities, he said.