BEIJING – The death toll in a fire that ripped through a hospital in China’s capital Beijing has risen to 29, a city official said today.
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”.