A total of five people died in the blaze which broke out in a stairwell shortly after 3am on April 14 and also left dozens injured, six seriously.

Four of the victims died after jumping out of windows to escape the blaze, while the fifth was found burned alive in the building in the 20th district of northeastern Paris.

Jasmine Jahanshahi, a student at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States, and Louise Brown from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, were students at Sciences-Po, the elite institution said.

The two Swedish students, Lisa Asberg and Felicia Bolm, were studying French Civilisation at the prestigious Sorbonne, a source close to the matter told AFP.

Another American Sciences-Po student, Grace Flott from the University of Washington, Seattle, is in a serious condition in hospital, Sciences-Po’s director Richard Descoings said.

Police are investigating what caused the fire.