BEIJING, China – Firefighters in China pulled six bodies from a shopping center on Wednesday, state media reported, with an unknown number still trapped after a blaze broke out in a 14-storey building.
Footage broadcast by state broadcaster CCTV and shared on social media showed thick black smoke billowing out of the tower, located in Zigong in southwestern Sichuan province.
The blaze started in the early evening in a shopping centre at the foot of the building, the channel said.
Around 30 people were rescued from the shopping complex, with the fire extinguished by rescuers around 8:20 pm (1220 GMT), CCTV said.
Later footage provided by a drone operator to AFP showed firetrucks and other first responders blocking off the road late at night, continuing to spray down the charred building.
“Six people have been killed,” CCTV reported, adding that search and rescue operations were continuing with people still trapped.
Zigong’s emergency services department received news about the fire at around 6:10 pm and immediately dispatched firefighters to extinguish the blaze, the broadcaster said.
Other images shared on social media — which AFP could not immediately verify — show people gathered in front of the burning building.
The emergency department has called on the public to “not to believe or amplify rumors” about the fire.
Zigong, some 1,900 kilometres from the capital Beijing, is home to nearly 2.5 million people.
Lax safety
Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and poor enforcement.
In January, dozens died after a fire broke out at a store in the central city of Xinyu, with state news agency Xinhua reporting the blaze had been caused by the “illegal” use of fire by workers in the store’s basement.
At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to avoid further tragedies.
The same month, a fire in a residential building killed at least 15 people.
That fire came just days after a late-evening blaze at a school in central China’s Henan province killed 13 schoolchildren as they slept in a dormitory.
In June last year, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the northwest of the country left 31 dead and prompted official pledges of a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.
And in April 2023, a fire in a Beijing hospital claimed 29 lives and forced desperate patients to jump from windows to escape. — Agence France-Presse
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