Beijing hospital fire: 12 people, including facility director, detained, say police

The death toll in a fire that ripped through a hospital in China's capital Beijing has risen to 29, a city official said Wednesday. Li Zongrong, deputy mayor of Beijing's Fengtai district, expressed his "deep condolences" as he announced the new toll at a press conference.

Twelve people, including the facility's director, have been detained in connection to the fire, said Sun Haitao from Beijing's public security bureau, adding that representatives from a company renovating the hospital were also being held.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that a preliminary probe revealed the blaze had been caused by "sparks generated during the internal renovation and construction of the inpatient department of the hospital".

The sparks "ignited the volatiles of the flammable paint on the site", CCTV said.

Social media users posted videos on Tuesday of people sitting on external air conditioning units, while others clinging to ropes jumped from the building. The videos could not be independently verified, but AFP has geolocated the building in the footage to the hospital.

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