New Zealand Police: Wellington Inn Fire. «Suspicious»

New Zealand police said on Wednesday that the hotel fire that killed six people in the capital Wellington on Tuesday was "suspicious," noting that another fire broke out two hours ago in the building.

Police Inspector Dion Bennett said in a statement: "We will seek to establish any link between (the fire) and the other fire that followed that resulted in deaths."

Police indicate that the fire caught fire in the sofa two hours before the fire that destroyed the lodge "Lovers Lodge", explaining that the emergency department was not informed of the first fire at the time.

This four-storey lodge is home to workers and poor people in Wellington.

A number of its residents managed to crawl out with difficulty amid suffocating smoke to escape the blaze, at dawn on Tuesday, while others jumped out of windows to survive.

Firefighters found six bodies inside the building, but authorities have yet to give a final toll as a partial collapse of the roof complicates search efforts.