Germany: Apartment fire kills 7 children and their mother

GlobalPost

A fire at an apartment building in the German town of Backnag has left seven children and their mother dead. 

The 40-year-old woman and seven of her ten children, aged aged between 6 months and 16, were found by firefighters in two rooms of their second-floor apartment after the blaze broke out around 4:30 a.m. 

The father of the family was not home at the time of the fire. 

Three others, including the childrens' grandmother, were rescued, according to the Associated Press

Investigators are looking into the cause of the fire, and believe a furnace may have been at the root of the fire, Deutsche Welle reported.

The building's first floor was occupied by a German-Turkish cultural exchange association, but police said that "there are no indications of arson or a xenophobic motive," Sky News reported

However, others are not so sure, including Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, who tweeted that there was "no room for doubt" as to the cause of the blaze, Agence France-Presse reported.

Turks in Germany have been targeted before, including in a series of arson attacks by right-wing extremists in the early 90s, AFP reported. 

More from GlobalPost: Imam killed in Belgium mosque arson

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