The death toll from a devastating hospital fire in Beijing has risen to 29, including 26 patients.
Also among the deceased after the blaze at the inpatient department of Beijing Changfeng Hospital were a nurse, a medical assistant and a family member.
The fire at the private hospital broke out at 1pm Tuesday local time, forcing dozens of people to evacuate. Some of those who were trapped escaped from windows using bedsheets tied together.
Concerned relatives rushed to the scene hours later after only learning of the fire through news reports.
Chinese officials are investigating the cause of the fire but authorities have said they believed it originated from welding sparks from works being carried out at the hospital.
12 people, including the hospital’s head and her deputy, along with the head of the construction crew, have been detained.
A total of 39 people are being treated for injuries, three of them in critical condition, officials said.
Some relatives of those at the hospital have told the media of their anguish at a lack of communication from the authorities in the aftermath of the fire.
“Just tell me if the patient is dead or alive,” one relative of a hospital patient told local media.
“How can the person just disappear out of thin air? Neither the nurses nor doctors picked up their phones. My elderly relative doesn’t have a phone on him.”
According to local media reports, most patients at the hospital were elderly.
Safety rules are frequently ignored in China. Construction accidents occasionally result from corners being cut on work hours and safety conditions, while local officials are bribed to ignore violations.
However, the government has previously pledged stronger safety measures after an explosion in 2015 at a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers.
Beijing Changfeng Hospital is in the capital’s western urban area, about 25 minutes by car from central Tiananmen Square.
