China: 17 killed, 3 injured in deadly fire accident at a restaurant

On Wednesday, a fire at a restaurant in northeastern China killed 17 people and injured another three, according to local authorities.

The blaze broke out at 12.40pm local time in an eatery situated in the city of Changchun, the local government said, in a statement posted on the social media platform Weibo.

Firefighters "rushed to the scene" and completed search and rescue work by 3pm local time, the statement said.

"The injured have been sent to hospital for treatment, while posthumous care for the victims is being carried out," it added.

Authorities said the cause of the incident is under investigation.

Deadly fires occur frequently in China, where the improper/lax enforcement of building codes and widespread unauthorised constructions can make it hard for people to flee burning buildings.

Earlier this month, a huge blaze in the central city of Changsha engulfed part of a skyscraper housing an office of state-owned telecommunications company China Telecom, but no casualties were reported.

In July last year, a warehouse fire in the northeastern Jilin province killed 15 people and injured 25 more, according to state media reports.

The month before that, a fire killed 18 people — mostly children — at a martial arts school in central Henan province, causing an uproar over fire safety standards.

A further two dozen people died in a pair of blazes in Beijing's migrant neighbourhoods in 2017, while 58 perished when a huge fire swept through a 28-storey Shanghai housing block in 2010.