Asia

Home page

Asia

Hotel fire kills 10 in central China

13 January 2011 19:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least 10 people have been killed and four others injured following a huge hotel fire in China’s central province of Hunan, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Fire ripped through the tiny Xinawan Hotel in Yuelu district of the provincial capital city of Changsha at 0:55 a.m. local time on Thursday (1645 GMT on Wednesday), the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

Firefighters were mobilized to the site to put out the fire. They were able to evacuate about 50 people and managed to extinguish the blaze in about an hour.

Six victims died at the scene while four more were killed after being admitted to a nearby hospital.

Ambulances shifted the bodies and those wounded to nearby hospitals. Most of the victims choked to death since hotel windows had been firmly shut because of the bitterly cold weather outside.

The cause of the massive fire is still under investigation, local safety authorities said.