Thirteen children die in Chinese boarding school fire

Thirteen pupils have died after a fire broke out in dormitories at a primary school in central Henan province, Chinese state media reported.

All of the dead were third-grade students, a teacher at Yingcai school told Zonglan news, a state-backed media outlet from Hebei province. One person rescued from the scene was being treated in hospital, China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, said.

The fire in the rural Fangcheng district started on Friday night and was put out just before midnight. The boarding school’s owner was detained, CCTV said.

The school gives students, many of whom are from rural areas, a break every two weeks but this was not a break weekend, the Paper said, citing several local residents.

The school, in the town of Dushu, caters primarily to students in the elementary grades, though it has an attached kindergarten, according to the school’s WeChat page.

Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China.

In November, 26 people died and dozens were sent to hospital after a fire at a coal company office in northern China’s Shanxi province.

Last July, 11 people died after the roof of a school gym collapsed in the north-east. The month before, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the north-west killed 31 people.

Last April, a hospital fire in Beijing killed 29 people and forced desperate survivors to jump out of windows to escape.