YANSHANPU.- Thirteen children died when a boarding school dormitory caught fire in central China, state media reported on Saturday, sparking a wave of outrage on social media.
Firefighters received notification at 11:00 p.m. on Friday (3:00 p.m. GMT) of a fire at the Yingcai boarding school in the village of Yanshanpu, in Henan province, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Thirteen students died and another was injured, according to this medium.
A teacher told the Hebei Daily that all the victims were students from the same primary class, between 9 and 10 years old.
The injured man “is currently receiving treatment in hospital and is in stable condition,” Xinhua said.
“Rescue teams quickly arrived at the scene and the flames were extinguished at 11:38 p.m.,” he added.
Local authorities are investigating the origin of the fire and at least one person linked to the school was arrested, according to the same media.
The area near the school was cordoned off on Saturday night, with more than a dozen police officers patrolling, AFP journalists noted.
Social networks explode in China
Yanshanpu village is located on the outskirts of Nanyang, a city of almost ten million people.
The streets of the town were practically empty on Saturday night. Only a few curious people remained on the other side of the police cordon.
A woman explained to AFP that some parents of students left their children at the boarding school while they worked outside the region.
In videos posted on social media before the tragedy, children, some of preschool age, are seen wearing robes with the school emblem and other older students learning calligraphy.
On Chinese social networks, Internet users expressed their anger and demanded that the authorities impose sanctions if safety regulations were not respected.
“It’s too horrible, 13 children from 13 families, all missing in an instant (…). If there is no severe punishment, their souls will not rest in peace,” wrote a user on the Chinese social network Weibo.
Deadly fires are common in China due to low safety standards and lax enforcement.
In November, 26 people died and dozens were hospitalized after a fire broke out in the offices of a coal company in the northern province of Shanxi.
The collapse of a gymnasium roof caused 11 deaths in July in northeastern China. And the month before, 31 people died in an explosion at a northwest restaurant.
In April, fire killed 29 people at a Beijing hospital, where some saved themselves from the flames by jumping out of the windows.
Following the fire in Shanxi, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the country to carry out “comprehensive investigations into hidden dangers in key industries, to improve emergency plans and prevention measures.”
Source: AFP
