Sawt Falasteen - Fire kills six at Turkish perfume warehouse

Five other people were injured, one of them seriously, and the owner of the warehouse was among three people arrested in the aftermath of the fire, officials said.

The fire broke out at 9:00 am (0600 GMT) in Dilovasi, around 70 kilometres (43 miles) from Istanbul, Ilhami Aktas, the governor of Kocaeli province, told public broadcaster TRT Haber.

Firefighters and other members of the emergency services quickly brought the fire under control, he said, adding: "Six of our citizens have unfortunately lost their lives."

Of the five injured, he said, one "is in a critical condition due to burns".

An investigation had been opened to determine the cause of the blaze, he added.

The mayor of Kocaeli, Tahir Buyukakin, said two teenage girls, aged 16 and 17, were among those killed in the blaze.

"We are not for the moment able to say what they were doing inside," he added.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said three people including the warehouse owner and two senior members of his staff had been arrested.

Seven civil servants working for the social security and labour ministries had also been suspended from their jobs, the labour ministry announced.

Two storeys of the building used as a depot were destroyed in the fire, images aired by the Turkish NTV channel showed.

"I heard an explosion... I looked from my balcony and saw that the clothes of a colleague had caught fire," one witness told the broadcaster NTV.

"I took a hose and I put the flames out. I then saw flames engulf the factories. There were cries" from the building, the witness added.

Z.AlNajjar--SF-PST