“Beijing Hospital Fire Kills 21: Investigation Underway in China”

A strong police presence was visible Wednesday morning around the establishment, while groups of passers-by observed and filmed the scene with their phones, AFP journalists noted.

The building appeared intact from the outside, but images of the interior published by business media Caixin showed fully charred beds and blackened walls.

The alert about a fire starting at Changfeng Hospital, in the Fengtai district, was given shortly before 1:00 p.m. (7:00 a.m. in Switzerland) on Wednesday. The disaster could be extinguished half an hour later, while rescuers evacuated 71 patients during the two hours that followed, according to the official Beijing Daily newspaper.

The death toll on Wednesday morning was 21, according to the same source. No details were given on the condition or number of those injured in the fire.

Images of people seeking protection from the flames by sitting on outdoor air conditioning units, or clinging to sheets before jumping from the building that houses the hospital have been shared on social media.

“The number one priority is to treat the injured,” said Yin Li, secretary of the Communist Party in Beijing, who went there, according to the “Beijing Daily”. He recommended “setting up a task force at the municipal level”, in particular to “quickly identify the cause of the accident and hold accountable those responsible, in accordance with the law”.

Several families of patients said they had lost contact with loved ones, with the missing patients mostly elderly people who have difficulty moving around, the official Chinese Youth Daily reported Wednesday.

Changfeng Hospital is in the west of the capital, about 25 minutes by car from Tiananmen Square.

Fatal fires are quite common in China, due to poor safety standards and corruption among officials responsible for enforcing them. In November, ten people were killed in the fire of a residential building in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, triggering a movement of popular anger against anti-Covid health restrictions, accused of having hampered the work of relief. Also in November, 38 people died in a factory fire in Anyang (central), authorities accusing employees of mishandling.