Fire in China’s Jiangxi province kills at least 39, rescue operation underway
Representative image of fire.
As many as 39 people have died after a fire broke out in the southeastern province of Jiangxi in China on Wednesday (Jan 24), according to the local government,
The fire broke out in thebasement of a shopping area in the afternoon, as per officials of theYushui district of Jiangxi province.
"At 3:24 pm (0724 GMT) on January 24, a fire broke out on the below-ground level at a storein Xinyu, Jiangxi,"the country's state broadcaster CCTV reported.
"As of 6:40 pm (1040 GMT), 25 people had been killed in the accident, and other injured people were being treated in the hospital," it added earlier.
Chinese President Xi Jinping released a statement, calling for "resolute containment" of deadly accidents in the country.
The video clips of the incident have gone viral on Chinese social media websites. One of the footage shows several fire trucks and other emergency response teams and their vehicles, lined up across the street from the place of the accident.
According to authorities, search and rescue operations are underway and the cause of the fire is being probed. While later reports said 39 have been confirmed dead, the local government is yet to provide an estimate on the number of people injured in the accident.
Watch |China: PLA Generals, Rocket Fire force Chiefs sacked
Previous incident
The incident comes days after a similar fire at a school in central China's Henan province killed 13 students.The Yingcai School where the accident took place, provides kindergarten and primary grade education.
According to residents, the schooltook a break once every two weeks but the students were present at school on the weekend of the deadly blaze.
According to one of the teachers at the school, all the victims were from the same third-grade class of nine and 10-year-olds.
The incident took place on January 20 but so far, no official explanation of the precise cause of the blaze has been provided by the authorities. Although some domestic media reports have suggested it was related to an electric heating device.
The Henan province has set up an incident management team to carry out an investigation and the afterwards handling of the incident.
(With inputs from agencies)