According to reports, the victim was identified as a third grade student at an elementary school in Henan province.
A fire broke out in a dormitory at a boarding school in central China, killing 13 students, state media reported.
One student was injured in a fire at Yingcai School in Yanshanpu village, Henan province, Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.
The victim was identified as a third-year elementary school student. A teacher told the state-run Hebei Daily that all the students were from the same class of 9- and 10-year-olds.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, but the blaze was reported at 11pm (3pm Japan time) on Friday, and the school’s principal was detained while authorities investigated the cause.
The injured survivors are being treated at a hospital and are reported to be in “stable condition,” Xinhua News Agency said.
Chinese state radio reported that some windows in the school’s dormitory building were broken and published photos showing police cordoning off the area.
Yanshanpu Village is located on the outskirts of Nanyang, a city of approximately 10 million people.
Little information about the boarding school has been released, but previously published social media videos show young children, including kindergarteners, wearing smocks with the school’s logo, and older children learning calligraphy. It was shown that they were there.
The private boarding school, which includes kindergartens and elementary schools, gives students a day off every two weeks, but this weekend will not be a day off, Shanghai government-backed news outlet The Paper reported.
Many of Eisai’s students are from rural areas.
“too scary”
On Saturday, Chinese social media users expressed outrage over the fire and called for any safety lapses to be punished.
One commenter on social media site Weibo said: “It’s horrifying. 13 families and 13 children disappeared in an instant… Their souls will not rest in peace without severe punishment. I guess,” he wrote.
Fires and other fatal accidents occur frequently in China, mainly due to lax safety standards and inadequate enforcement.
In November, a fire broke out at a coal company office in northern China’s Shanxi province, killing 26 people and sending dozens to hospital.
In July, the roof of a school gymnasium in the country’s northeast collapsed, killing 11 people.
A hospital fire in Beijing in April killed 29 people and forced desperate survivors to escape by jumping out of windows.
After the coal company fire in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a “thorough investigation into hidden risks in key industries and improved emergency planning and prevention measures.”