No fewer than 18 people were killed and 16 injured when a fire broke out at a martial arts school in central China in the early hours of Friday, according to the local government.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that all victims were boarding pupils with many of them aged between seven and 16.
The fire had been extinguished and authorities were investigating the cause of the blaze, a statement from the Zhecheng county government in Henan province, said.
Four local officials including the county party secretary were fired over the incident.
Africa Today News, New York also gathered that two more suspects were arrested in addition to the school’s manager Chen Lin.
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There were 34 boarding students on the premises when the fire broke out, according to a government staff.
Those hurt — four of whom had severe injuries — were rushed to a local hospital, where an unnamed doctor told local media they were “doing everything they could” to save them.
The cause of the fire was still unclear.
An official confirmed to reporters that the school was the Zhenxing Martial Arts Centre.
Local media reports described it as a ‘comprehensive martial arts training institution’ that aimed to ‘strengthen the body through morality and martial arts’.
An online listing for the school advertised hour-long classes each day for a range of martial arts disciplines and said the school ‘recruits boarding students year-round’, but offered no further details.
Provincial party chief Lou Yangsheng told local media that the blaze was a ‘profound lesson’.
The school had not gone through the fire safety auditing process required for martial arts training institutions, as the building had originally been a privately built house intended for other purposes local media reported last night.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK