21 killed in apartment blaze in China

BEIJING: Twenty-one people, including nine women, were killed and two others severely injured in a towering blaze at a 28-storey apartment in east China's Zhejiang province on Wednesday, a fire brigade official said.

Two were burnt to death in a flower shop on the first floor where, according to witnesses, the blaze broke out and 19 others were suffocated to death by smoke which engulfed the entire building.

A spokesman with the fire fighting brigade in Wenzhou city, said that 105 people were rescued and 108 others were evacuated while the fire raged. "All the trapped persons in the building have been saved."

The victims included 12 men and nine women, he added.

More than 200 firemen and 35 fire fighters fought the blaze for more than two and half hours before extinguishing it, official Xinhua news agency said.

The first three floors were used for commercial purposes and the rest were residential flats.

The cause of the fire was being investigated, the spokesman said, providing no further details.