Inquiry launched after Chinese high-rise fire tragedy

Investigators are seeking the cause of a fire that engulfed a high-rise apartment building under renovation in China's business centre of Shanghai, killing 49 people and sending residents scrambling down scaffolding to escape.

By The Newsroom

Published 16th Nov 2010, 23:04 BST

Updated 16th Nov 2010, 23:04 BST

The government said more than 100 fire trucks were called to battle the blaze thought to have spread after building materials caught alight. Firefighters could be seen removing bodies from the 28-storey apartment block, while injured survivors were rushed away in ambulances. Other survivors were housed overnight in the gym of a nearby retirement home.

Relatives searched for their loved ones' names on lists at nine city hospitals. The father of Wang Yinxing, a 30-year-old woman who lived on the 22nd floor of the building, could not find his daughter's name.

"She called her husband and said, 'It's on fire...I have escaped from the 22nd floor to the 24th floor,' but then the phone got cut off," Wang Zhiliang, 65, said with tears in his eyes. "That was the last we heard from her."

China