Beijing Hospital Fire Toll Rises To 29, 12 Detained As Cops Initiate Probe

The toll in the Beijing hospital fire has increased to 29 as the police initiated a probe and 12 people have been detained.

Visual from the site showing burnt windows and the affected Chanfeng Hospital

Source : Twitter/@AFP

The police have detained 12 people in the Beijing hospital fire, including the hospital director, following an investigation into the incident in the Changfeng Hospital as the toll rose to 29 on Wednesday. Numerous videos were doing the rounds on social media which showed people using tied bed sheets to climb down the walls to escape the fire that broke out at 1 pm on Tuesday. 

Seventy-one people were rescued from the site and the fire was extinguished in about half an hour as per reports. Broken and burnt windows could be seen along with a heavy police presence at the site including the officials who were not in their uniforms, blocking access to the hospital, reported Reuters.

#BREAKING 12 people, including hospital director, detained over Beijing fire: police pic.twitter.com/53je4cNO6m

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 19, 2023

The Beijing government announced that it will hold a press conference on Wednesday at around 12 pm.

Posts regarding the fire were circulating on WeChat for several hours but were either censored or deleted, reported Reuters.

A post on WeChat which was later deleted read, "Rescue work at the scene concluded in 3.5 hours, but the public only knew that 21 had died from the fire when it's already past 8 in the evening." A comment on the same post read, "It is very puzzling that little information was known about a fire killing 21 people in a densely populated major city like Beijing before the official notification.”

The cause of the fire is still not known as per the state and local media reports, however, a probe into the matter is underway.