Beijing:
A fire broke out in a residential building in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, killing at least 15 people and injuring 44 others, the local government said on Saturday.
The fire broke out early Friday morning and a preliminary investigation showed it started on the first floor of the building, where the e-bikes were kept, officials said at a news conference.
The building is located in Yuhuatai District, Nanjing, a city with a population of over 8 million located approximately 260 kilometers northwest of Shanghai.
Authorities said the fire had been extinguished by 6:00 a.m. and the search and rescue operation ended around 02:00 p.m. on Friday.
Video circulating on Chinese social networks showed a skyscraper catching fire in the middle of the night, with black smoke rising.
Other images showed huge flames engulfing several floors of the building, with the flashing lights of nearby emergency vehicles visible in the darkness.
Additional footage apparently taken later shows white smoke billowing from several locations in the building.
Officials added that 44 injured people had been sent to hospitals for treatment.
They said one of them was in “critical” condition and the other was seriously injured.
City Mayor Chen Zhichang expressed condolences and apology to the families of the victims at a press conference.
Frequent fires
Fires and other fatal accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and weak enforcement.
China has been hit by a string of deadly fires in recent months, often caused by official negligence, prompting President Xi Jinping last month to call for “deep reflection” and greater efforts to “curb frequent safety incidents.”
In January, a fire at a store in the central city of Xinyu killed dozens of people, with state news agency Xinhua reporting that the fire was caused by “illegal” use of fire by workers in the store’s basement.
The fire came just days after a late-night fire at a school in central China’s Henan province killed 13 students sleeping in a dormitory.
A teacher at the school told the state-run Hebei Daily newspaper that all the victims were from the same third-grade class and consisted of children aged nine and 10.
Domestic media reported that the fire was caused by an electric heating device.
In November, a fire broke out at a coal company office in northern China’s Shanxi province, killing 26 people and sending dozens to hospital.
A month ago, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the country’s northwest killed 31 people, prompting officials to pledge a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.
In April, a fire broke out in a Beijing hospital, killing 29 people and forcing desperate survivors to jump out of windows to escape.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
