Building fire kills 14 in China’s northern city of Taiyuan

A fire on Sunday at a high-rise building in Taiyuan, the capital of China's northern ​province of Shanxi, killed at least 14 ‌people, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday. State media said 25 people were still in hospital, nine with ​serious injuries, citing authorities after the fire ​broke out on Sunday evening in the building ⁠on a busy downtown main road.

Smoke billowed over ​the 40-storey structure as firefighters poised on cranes ​outside fought flames that spread upward from a lower annex, video images circulated online and verified by Reuters showed. The fire appears to have ​started around the fourth floor of the annex ​before spreading to the eighth and ninth floors, which house ‌a ⁠hotel, the state broadcaster said.

The entire building is a mixed-use commercial and residential property with several hotels, short-term rental apartments, smaller venues as well as tutoring ​centres, the ​report said. The ⁠fire was put out after about two hours and authorities said rescue operations ​wrapped up by 8:30 pm on Sunday night, ​with ⁠38 people taken to hospital.