LUDWIGSHAFEN (Germany), Feb 6: Turkish and German politicians called for calm on Wednesday after a fire in Germany which killed nine people of Turkish origin stoked tension.

Speculation that Sunday’s blaze in the western city of Ludwigshafen was a racially motivated crime has mounted and the case threatens to overshadow a visit to Germany by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan later this week.

Police say the cause of the fire is unclear but they are looking at allegations that it was an arson attack. Five of the victims were children.

The incident has revived memories of a firebomb attack by Germans in 1993 on a house in Solingen which killed five Turks and made headlines around the world.

The conservative Turkish Zaman daily said suspicions were growing that arsonists were responsible for the fire and “racist youths” had threatened a family who lost members in the blaze.

It reported relatives of the family in the eastern Turkish province of Gaziantep as saying they had been threatened by neo-Nazis soon after arriving in the building.

It also reported a Turkish girl as telling the police she had seen a German in the building just before the blaze started and that he was hiding what seemed to be a bottle.

Turkey sent officials to the scene to help German police with the investigation and State Minister Mustafa Said Yazicioglu warned against jumping to premature conclusions.

“If the factual cause of the fire is discovered and the necessary steps are taken, it will be easier for Turkish people to be at peace,” he said on a visit to the ruins of the block.

Erdogan, due to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, is planning to visit the site on Thursday.

German integration commissioner Maria Boehmer, who laid a wreath on behalf of Merkel, also tried to reassure people.

“We must do everything we can to make sure people do not jump to the wrong conclusions. We will clear this up hand in hand, hopefully soon,” she said.

Police took dogs into the burned-out four-storey house on Wednesday to start sifting through evidence.

Germany is home to about 2.5 million people of Turkish descent, many of whom live in separate communities. The government has vowed to try to improve integration.

Germany’s top-selling Bild newspaper cited police as saying there had been an attack on the building in 2006, when a stone and two petrol bombs were lobbed into the ground floor, causing minor damage.

Diplomatic ties also showed signs of strain.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble criticised Turkey’s ambassador to Germany for saying it was strange that German politicians had ruled out any xenophobic motive before police had established the cause, wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

“Sometimes ambassadors should be taught manners,” the paper quoted Schaeuble as saying.—Reuters