Paris police evacuated Friday some 150 African immigrants from two unsafe buildings declared to be " irremediably uninhabitable" in the wake of two deadly fires leaving 24 dead last week in Paris.

The evacuations occurred in Paris 14th and 19th districts. A police statement said the squatters had no "right or title" to be in the buildings "which were known by the security services to expose occupants to risk."

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe announced Friday that 133 Malians who escaped from last Friday's fire that killed 17 people were to be rehoused in some 30 flats across the capital.

The fires broke out last Friday and Monday, along with another fire in April that killed 24 Africans, have highlighted low-cost housing crisis in Paris.

Paris police said Thursday they had identified around 60 illegally inhabited buildings which were at risk of fire and that several evacuations are planned over the coming days.

The Paris city hall has identified some 1,000 run-down buildings housing some 13,000 families, mostly African. It pledged to renovate them all by 2007, but said its finances are inadequate to move faster and is demanding extra help from the state.

Source: Xinhua