Fire kills 3 Indian students in Bochum, Germany, man held

3 Indian students died in a fire that tore through a multi-storey residential building in the Hofstede district of the western German city of Bochum, in the early hours of Tuesday, according to the Romanian outlets Digi24 and Știripesurse, both of which cited reporting by Indian broadcaster NDTV. A 41-year-old Romanian man who lived in the same building was arrested shortly afterwards in connection with the blaze.

The fire started on the ground floor, where prams left in the communal hallway are suspected to have been set alight, according to the reports. Flames climbed the building's single wooden staircase on Poststrasse, the only route in or out of the upper floors, as thick smoke filled the corridors, hampering any escape.

Firefighters searching the building found the bodies of the three victims, all students aged between 20 and 30 from the southern Indian state of Kerala, inside a flat on the second floor. 5 other people in the building were also hurt, including a foreign student who remained in critical condition, the two outlets reported.

A Bochum police spokesperson told the German broadcaster WDR that there were initial grounds to suspect homicide against the arrested man, who was taken in for questioning by detectives from the homicide squad. Neighbours told police that residents of the building had argued loudly the day before the fire broke out, though no link between the dispute and the blaze has been officially confirmed.

Știripesurse, one of the two Romanian outlets reporting the case, described it as a suspected triple murder. German police, however, have so far spoken only of initial grounds for a homicide investigation, without confirming a motive or announcing formal charges. The arrested man had previous convictions for assault and offences against property, according to the reports. No court date has yet been announced, and prosecutors have not said whether formal homicide charges will follow the initial questioning.