Chinese authorities say they have arrested more than a dozen people in connection with a Beijing hospital fire that has claimed the lives of at least 29 victims.
At a news conference on Wednesday, officials said most of the dead were patients at Changfeng Hospital when a fire erupted in southwestern Beijing around noon Tuesday. also died in the fire. Another 21 of his were hospitalized in critical or critical condition.
The fire appears to have claimed the most lives in China’s capital in 20 years. Government censors tried to quell public anger by restricting information on the internet in the first hours after the fires. Censorship appeared relaxed Wednesday morning as online conversations about the fire surged to the top of trending topics on Chinese social media platforms.
Local officials apologized for the fire and said they would learn from the tragedy.
“We feel a deep sense of responsibility and guilt,” said Li Zongrong, deputy director of Beijing’s Fengtai district, the region where the hospital is located. “I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the victims, my heartfelt sympathies to the families of the victims, the injured and their families, and my apologies to everyone in the city.”
Beijing public security officials said they had arrested 12 people, including the director and deputy director of the hospital and the head of a construction company that oversees work at the hospital. Officials said the vehicle was under investigation for a possible major accident that violated safety regulations and caused serious casualties.
Officials said the fire broke out in the east wing of the hospital, which mainly treats critically ill patients. The average age of inpatients who died in the fire was 71.
This is a developing story.
