By Murat Unlu
MULHOUSE, France (AA) - A Turkish minister on Tuesday said that his country was closely following the fire incident, which killed five people including 3 Turkish nationals in eastern France.
“As the government and [Turkish] state we closely follow this incident. We will never allow it to be covered up in any way,” Numan Kurtulmus, the culture minister, told Turkish citizens at Mulhouse Turkish Culture Center.
On Sunday night, five people, including four kids, were killed in a blaze that broke out in a social housing block in the eastern French city of Mulhouse. Eight other people were also injured in the fire.
Earlier in the day, Kurtulmus, who was in capital Paris to attend a meeting of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Tourism Committee, visited families of the victims in Mulhouse and expressed his condolences.
Meanwhile, a 28-year-old man, who lives in the same building, admitted having thrown a cigarette butt to the basement, according to a French local newspaper DNA on Tuesday.
The suspect was arrested after the incident and he was known to the police services for his arson and housebreaking records, the Mulhouse Prosecutor Dominique Alzeari had said on Monday.