Hotel fire kills 11, scores injured

Eleven people were killed and 50 injured in a hotel fire Sunday morning in Xiangyang, Central China's Hubei Province, the publicity department of the CPC Xiangyang City Committee said.

The fire broke out at 6:38 am in the Yijing City Garden Hotel in Fancheng district, the district government said Sunday.

The Wuhan-based Hubei Daily reported Sunday that initial investigations show that faulty wiring was to blame, and the fire started in an Internet café in a lower level of the hotel, which is close to the city's train station.

A netizen said in a post on a local online forum that he heard people screaming and crying for help, and saw someone jumping from the fifth floor of the hotel, which is located on Qianjin Road East.

"The fire trucks that arrived later were able to rescue two children from the building," the netizen said.

Local firefighters said the fire was extinguished at 8:50 am. The injured were sent to five hospitals and some were in critical condition.

A nurse at the No.1 Hospital of Xiangfan told the Global Times late Sunday that all the injured sent to the hospital for medical treatment were in stable condition.

A staffer with the hotel was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying that when the fire broke out, 42 of the hotel's 50 rooms were occupied. "Only a few of the guests managed to run out of the hotel on their own," said the staffer.

Liu Wenzheng, a local resident, was quoted by the China News Service as saying that some 10 shops on the ground floor of the hotel were destroyed.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The provincial government also said those found responsible would be severely punished and pledged to root out fire hazards in other establishments.