Thirteen children die in a boarding school fire

Thirteen children died to The bedroom caught fire from U.S Internal training Saturday, in central China, sparking a wave of protests, state media reported Anger on social media.

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that at 11:00 p.m. local time on Friday, firefighters were notified of a fire at Yingkai Boarding School in Yanshanpu Village, Henan Province.

Thirteen students died and another was injured, according to this outlet.

A teacher told Hebei Daily that all the victims were students from the same primary grade, aged between 9 and 10 years.

Xinhua said that the injured man “is currently receiving treatment in hospital and is in stable condition.”

He added, “Rescue teams quickly arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire at 11:38 p.m..”

Local authorities are investigating the origin of the fire, and at least one person linked to the school has been arrested, according to the same media.

Agence France-Presse journalists noted that the area near the school was cordoned off on Saturday evening, with more than a dozen police officers patrolling.

Yanshanpu Village is located on the outskirts of Nanyang, a city with a population of about ten million people.

The town's streets were almost empty on Saturday evening. Only a few curious people remained on the other side of the police cordon.

A woman explained to Agence France-Presse that some of the students' families left their children at the boarding school while they worked outside the area.

In videos posted on social media before the tragedy, children, some of pre-school age, were seen wearing robes bearing the school logo while older students learned calligraphy.

On Chinese social networks, netizens expressed their anger and demanded that the authorities impose penalties if safety rules are not respected.

“It is absolutely terrible, 13 children from 13 families, all missing in an instant (…).” One social network user wrote: “If there is no strict punishment, their souls will not rest in peace.” China Weibo.

Deadly fires are common in China Due to low safety standards and flexible application of regulations.

In November, 26 people died and dozens were hospitalized after a fire broke out in the offices of a coal company in the northern province of Shaanxi.

The collapse of the roof of a gym killed 11 people in July in the northeast of the country China. The previous month, 31 people died in an explosion at a restaurant in the northwest of the country.

In April, a fire killed 29 people in a Beijing hospital, with some saving themselves from the flames by jumping out of windows.

Following the fire in Shaanxi, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the country to conduct “comprehensive investigations into hidden risks in key industries, to improve emergency plans and prevention measures.”