Four African migrants were taken to an Israeli hospital with burns and smoke inhalation on Monday after a potentially deadly arson attempt on the Jerusalem building in which they were living, police said.

The incident, which police described as "very serious," took place in an old two-storey building in a poor neighbourhood near the city's Mahane Yehuda market, just after 3:00 am (0000 GMT).

Police said the fire was started in a narrow entrance corridor which led to several apartments inside the building, home to 18 African migrants. On the external walls of the building, someone had sprayed Hebrew-language graffiti reading: "Get out of the neighbourhood."

"There were 18 people living in the building, and the corridor leads to all the apartments," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, indicating that all the residents were of African origin.