Hostel fire victims remembered

Survivors link up in front of the candles for their friends

Survivors lit candles for each of their friends who perished during a memorial service for the victims of the hostel fire in the Australian town of Childers.

They hugged and held each other as they sang hymns and heard readings.

Streets were deserted as almost every member in the local community attended the service, held in the small town's cultural centre.

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Australian Prime Minister John Howard also attended, and the Queen sent her condolences to the families and friends of those who died.

A day of mourning across Queensland has also been declared for Monday.

Detectives suspended their investigations at the Palace Backpackers' hostel overnight because the 100-year-old timber building was too dangerous to work in.

They have appealed for information and released a picture of the man they want to interview in connection with the blaze.

One of the many tributes left by survivors

Experts have yet to reach 14 bodies still inside on the hostel's first floor, although one body has been removed from the building.

It is believed that six of the dead are British, one Irish, three are Australian, with the rest from Korea, Japan, the Netherlands and Spain.

Families of some of those believed dead are travelling to the scene of the tragedy to talk to survivors.

Childers, a small town serving farmers growing sugar cane and fruit in that part of Queensland, remains in shock.

Suspect

Police are still searching for 37-year-old Robert Paul Long, an Australian citizen known to have been in Childers in the weeks before the fire.

Detectives have released a photograph of him and say he may be vital to their inquiries.

"We strongly believe he was at the hostel before the fire started and that he can help us with our inquiries," said Superintendent Ken Benjamin of Brisbane Police.

Robert Long: Police want to question him

It is not confirmed whether Mr Long was the man who was ejected from the hostel a week ago swearing revenge, and who had allegedly made threats to several women at the hostel in the days leading up to the fire.

However, one survivor has told a British newspaper that he saw Long standing next to a burning wastepaper bin an hour before the fire swept through the hostel.

Neil Griffith, aged 24 from Fen Ditton in Cambridgeshire, told the UK newspaper the Sunday Telegraph he put out the fire with a cushion and went to bed only to be woken an hour later by banging and shouting as thick black smoke poured into the dormitory.

Several leads

Police have finished interviewing survivors and said they had several leads as a result.

The blaze swept through the hostel at about 12.30am local time on Friday.

About 70 people were rescued and nine survivors taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. At least 20 of the survivors were from the UK, police said.

Backpacking in Australia

More than 404,000 backpackers visit each year

Average stay is 66 days

Backpacking generates A$1.72bn a year for the country

Two young women from Aberfan, South Wales, are still missing after the fire, but it has not been confirmed whether they died in the blaze.

The UK Foreign Office has contacted families of Britons still missing after the fire to make them aware of the situation.

"This doesn't mean that everybody on the list is dead," said a spokeswoman. One man on the list had recently contacted relatives in England to tell them he was all right, she added.

Hundreds of worried parents have tried to contact their children in Australia on backpacking holidays. Hotlines have been opened and young tourists are being urged to call home and reassure their families.

Survivors will be put up in two hotels in the town for the next few days and internet cafes have been cleared to allow them to send e-mails home to friends and family.