Five children die in Berlin blaze

Firefighters said many residents did not understand their instructions

A fire at an apartment building in Berlin has killed eight people - five of them children - and injured more than a dozen others, officials say.

Firefighters said four of the dead came from the same Polish family. At least 15 people were seriously injured.

Rescue efforts were apparently hampered by residents having little German and thus being unable to follow directions.

About 150 firemen battled the blaze, which police suspect may have been caused by arson.

Police said no substances were used to accelerate the fire, which is believed to have started in a pram in a ground-floor stairwell of the five-storey building near the central Tiergarten park.

"We are presuming that it was a premeditated crime, but we cannot rule out that it was arson caused by negligence," said Berlin prosecutor Karl Heinz Dalheimer.

Firefighters said many of those living in the building were foreigners, however Berlin officials appeared to rule out any political or racial motive for the fire.

'Run toward death'

Panicked residents fled their apartments, only to become trapped in the wooden staircase, which was gutted.

The head of Berlin's fire services, Albrecht Broemme, said most of the victims would have survived if they had stayed put.

"Some residents headed straight into disaster. Running for the stairwell was a run toward death," he said.

The fire was extinguished in about 15 minutes, he added.

The blaze is the deadliest in Berlin since a fire in a hotel in Kurfuerstendamm killed eight in 1989.