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A fire broke out at a school in Nanyang, central China’s Henan province.
CNN
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At least 13 people have been killed in a fire at a school dormitory in central China, state media said.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the fire broke out at around 11pm local time on Friday at Yingcai School near Nanyang City, Henan Province.
In addition to the dead, one person was injured and was being treated at a hospital, local authorities said.
Firefighters had the fire extinguished by 11:38 p.m., state media said.
Local authorities are investigating the cause of the fire, the report said, adding that “the person in charge of the school” has been detained.
One student told the state-run Beijing Youth Daily that his teacher woke him up in the middle of the night and told him to run because the smell of smoke filled the air.
According to parents interviewed by the paper, students at the boarding school are allowed to go home once every 10 days for four days. One said the students were scheduled to take exams before the holidays start next week.
The fire had become one of the most searched items on Weibo, a Chinese social media site similar to Twitter, with more than 16 million people reading about it by Saturday afternoon.
One user with more than 920,000 followers noted that the fire occurred just days before the Lunar New Year school holidays, when students traditionally go home to spend time with their families.
“The Spring Festival is coming soon, a day when families gather together. A tragedy like this would bring great pain to a family of 13 people,” a user wrote.
Another user called for accountability, saying, “I hope the cause of the fire will be determined.”
This is developing news.Further in the future