INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A restaurant fire in northeastern China killed 22 people on Tuesday, the official news agency Xinhua said, in the latest in a series of
similar deadly incidents around the country, Reuters reported.
Xinhua did not identify the cause of the fire but said President Xi Jinping
called it “a deeply sobering lesson” and urged local officials to quickly treat the injured, determine what triggered the blaze and hold
those responsible to account.
The fire broke out at 12:25 p.m
(0425 GMT) in a restaurant in a residential area of Liaoning Province’s Liaoyang City, state broadcaster CCTV said
Three people were injured.
Footage circulating on social media including X and Chinese platform Douyin, and verified by Reuters, showed
bright orange flames engulfing a storefront on street level alongside scores of parked vehicles
Smoke was seen billowing out as paramedics tended to people on stretchers, read the report.
Hao Peng, secretary of Liaoning’s provincial
ruling party committee, said 22 fire trucks and 85 firefighters were deployed to the scene
Hao said the on-site rescue work had been completed and people had been evacuated.
It was the latest in a spate of similar incidents across
the country in recent years
In April, 20 people were killed in a fire that broke out in an apartment for the elderly at a nursing home in the northern province of
Hebei.
Gas leaks caused at least two high-profile explosions in residential areas last year, with a blast at a restaurant in Hebei province
killing two people and injuring 26 in March, and an explosion in a highrise building in southern Shenzhen province in September killing one
person.
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