Twenty-one people were killed after a fire broke out in the east wing of the inpatient department of a hospital in China’s capital Beijing, the Beijing Daily reported on Tuesday.
Advertisement
Advertisement
The fire broke out at around 12:57 p.m.(0457 GMT) and was extinguished at around 13:33 p.m. after an emergency team rushed to the scene of the accident in Beijing’s Changfeng Hospital, according to the Beijing Daily. A total of 71 people were evacuated and transferred after the rescue work. As of 6 p.m. (1000 GMT), 21 had died after being transferred to hospital for treatment, the Beijing Daily reported.
“It’s tragic. I can see the accident from the window of my house. A lot of people were standing on the air conditioning unit at noon, and some even jumped off,” said a Weibo netizen. Hospital fires are rare in China, and the cause of the blaze is still being investigated.
According to media reports, the death toll was released after the victims were taken to another unidentified hospital for emergency treatment, as per media reports. However, there was no immediate clarity on those injured or their condition.
In a separate incident, 11 people died in a factory fire in Wuyi county, Jinhua city in China’s eastern Zhejiang province on Monday, the local government said on Tuesday.
The blaze broke out at 14:04 on Monday. Firefighters, police officers and emergency medical personnel rushed to the spot after receiving an emergency call about the incident. Two rounds of search and rescue operations were carried out by 4 am Tuesday after the fire was brought under control and 11 bodies were found, the China Daily reported.
Advertisement