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BEIJING: Firefighters have put out a blaze and pulled out six bodies from a shopping mall in southwestern China as thick smoke billowed from a fire, state broadcaster CCTV reported, adding that some people were still trapped.
The channel reported that about 30 others had been rescued from a shopping mall in Zigong, Sichuan province.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that “six people have died,” adding that search and rescue operations were continuing.
Videos broadcast by the channel and shared on social media showed thick black smoke billowing from the building.
“As of 8:20 p.m. (12:20 GMT), the fire had been put out,” CCTV reported.
The channel said the fire broke out in the evening at a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building.
Other images shared on social media, which AFP could not immediately verify, showed people gathered in front of the burning building.
Fire trucks and ambulances could be seen nearby.
According to the TV station, Zigong City’s emergency management department received a report of the fire on June 11 local time and immediately dispatched firefighters to put out the fire.
The emergency department urged the public “not to believe or exaggerate rumours” about the fire.
Zigong is about 1,900 kilometers away from the capital Beijing and has a population of nearly 2.5 million.
Lax security
Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and weak enforcement.
In January this year, a fire in a store in the central Xinjiang city of Xinyu killed dozens of people. According to Xinhua News Agency, the fire was caused by workers using fire “illegally” in the store’s basement.
At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for learning lessons from the disaster to avoid a recurrence of tragedy.
That same month, a fire in a residential building killed at least 15 people.
Just days before this fire, a fire broke out in a school in central China’s Henan Province in the evening, killing 13 students who were sleeping in their dormitory.
Last April, a rare fire broke out in a Beijing hospital, killing 29 people and forcing desperate patients to jump out of windows to escape.
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