BBC News Online: World

Policemen burn to death in Paris flat

The authorities say police were called in the early evening by neighbours to intervene in what seemed to be a domestic dispute between a man and his former girlfriend in a seventh-floor apartment on the Boulevard de la Chapelle near the Gare du Nord.

It is unclear exactly what happened, but reports say the man doused the flat and possibly some of those present with petrol before barricading them in. He then set fire to the place.

Three of the policemen as well as the man himself were overcome by smoke and burned to death.

The woman, her son and a fourth policeman escaped. The French Minister of the Interior, Jean-Pierre Chevenement, has been on the scene and described the event as one of appalling violence.