Beijing’s state media said that a restaurant fire in northeastern China killed 22 people and injured three on Tuesday. The building was engulfed in intense flames in footage that was shared online.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, the fire started around 12:25 p.m. (9:25 a.m. PKT) in a restaurant located in a residential neighborhood of Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province. It also stated, “There have been 22 fatalities and three injuries as a result of the incident.”
According to CCTV, President Xi Jinping declared that the fire had resulted in “significant casualties” and that the lessons learned were “profoundly serious.”
According to the source, Xi urged “every effort to treat the injured, properly handle the aftermath for the deceased and provide support to their families, swiftly determine the cause of the fire, and pursue accountability in accordance with the law.”
President Xi Jinping referred to the incident as “a deeply sobering lesson,” according to official news agency Xinhua, which did not specify the reason.
Online footage, confirmed by AFP, showed smoke rising into the air and the fire devouring the two-story eatery.
Other verified videos that appeared on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, featured multiple firefighters using hoses to extinguish the fire and paramedics transporting a person on a stretcher into an ambulance.
More than a dozen fire trucks were stationed outside the restaurant in another social networking platform’s footage that was taken from above the incident.
According to Hao Peng, secretary of the province governing party committee in Liaoning, 85 firefighters and 22 fire vehicles were sent to the scene. According to Hao, individuals had been evacuated and the on-site rescue operations were finished.
“Very tragic.”
According to a woman who works at a nearby restaurant, she hadn’t been outside during the day and just found out about the tragedy after reading news reports about the fire.
“We didn’t know about it and carried on as usual,” she said on the phone to AFP.
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed to have “no idea” what started the fire but that she could hear sirens and that police were still present outside her eatery.
She went on to say, “It was definitely very tragic.”
In recent months, there has been a surge in these fatal instances across the nation. A fire at a nursing home in the Hebei region of northern China earlier this month claimed the lives of 20 residents.
Additionally, a vegetable market fire in Zhangjiakou city, northwest of Beijing, in January claimed eight lives and injured fifteen more.
Nine people perished in a fire at a building site in Rongcheng, eastern China, one month prior.
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