PARIS - A woman has been arrested after 10 people died in a fire which ripped through an apartment building in a wealthy Paris neighbourhood.

The blaze in the French capital's high-end 16th arrondissement in the wee hours on Tuesday caused injuries to at least 31 people, including six firefighters.

French President Emmanuel Macron took to Twitter to express that "France wakes up with emotion after the fire in rue Erlanger in Paris last night."

About 200 firefighters battled the blaze, which started at about 1am local time (midnight GMT), and was extinguished after several hours. Firefighters described the area as a "scene of incredible violence".

"I heard a woman screaming in the street, crying for help," a witness Jacqueline Ravier, who lives across the street from the building, told the Associated Press news agency.

She said shaken residents were evacuated and brought to her building and the one adjacent to it.

Ravier described seeing "a young man in his underwear", blackened by smoke, and a woman motionless on the ground outside.(FA)