Turkish police arrested two people after the death of seven illegal Afghan immigrants in a fire in an Istanbul shanty yesterday, Anatolia news agency reported.

The bodies were found in the house after the fire was extinguished in suburban Sultangazi, Anatolia said. The immigrants could not escape the fire as the door was locked from outside, it said.

Police said the victims, all male, were Afghans who illegally entered Turkey and wanted to travel on to western Europe, Anatolia said.

Police was also searching for a third person with a criminal record for human smuggling. The cause of the fire was unknown.

Investigators found two Indian passports in the house, news channel NTV said.