On Wednesday, local officials reported that 17 people were killed and 3 others injured in a restaurant fire in northeastern China. Weibo reported that the fire started at a restaurant in Changchun at 14:40 (local time; 14:40 GMT).
According to the statement, the fire department “rushed to the site” and finished rescue operations by 3 p.m.
It went on to say that those who were hurt were taken to the hospital and that the deceased were given proper burial rites.
It is unclear what caused the tragedy, according to authorities.
China has a high rate of fatal building fires due to low enforcement of building rules and extensive unlicensed construction.
No one was hurt when a large fire destroyed part of a building housing an office of state-owned telecoms major China Telecom in the central city of Changsha earlier this month.
According to official media, 15 people were murdered, and 25 others were injured in a warehouse fire in the northeastern province of Jilin in July last year.
A month prior, a fire at a martial arts school in central Henan province killed 18 people, most of them children, and sparked an outcry over the region’s lax fire safety regulations.
Two fires in Beijing’s migrant neighborhoods killed another 24 people last year, while a massive inferno in a 28-story Shanghai apartment building killed 58 people in 2010.
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