Fire at Chinese construction site kills nine

BEIJING: A fire has killed nine people at a construction site in eastern China, the local emergency management bureau said on Sunday.

The blaze erupted at around 1:00 pm (0500 GMT) on Saturday when insulation materials caught fire at an unfinished warehouse in Shandong province´s Rongcheng city, the emergency bureau said in a statement published by a state-backed media outlet.

The emergency bureau said on Saturday that nine people were “missing” as they worked to extinguish the fire and launch a rescue operation.

It said in another statement on Sunday that the victims “have all been found with no vital signs”.

The cause of the incident was “under investigation”, the statement said. Deadly fires are relatively common in China due to lax building codes and an often slipshod approach to workplace safety.

A blaze in the major city of Chengdu in October left 24 people hospitalised with breathing difficulties, state media reported.