Twelve Detained Over Beijing Fire That Killed 29

The death toll rose to 29 on Wednesday from a fire at a Beijing hospital that was one of the capital's deadliest in at least two decades, killing 26 patients and wounding dozens.

Police said 12 people have been detained in connection to the blaze, including the facility's director.

Emergency response teams first received word just before 1pm on Tuesday that a fire had broken out at the Beijing Changfeng Hospital in the capital city's Fengtai District, the Beijing Daily newspaper said.

The fire was extinguished about half an hour later and rescue efforts continued for another two hours, by which time 71 patients had been evacuated to another location.

A Beijing official on Wednesday afternoon said 29 people died in the fire.

Li Zongrong, deputy mayor of Beijing's Fengtai district, expressed his "deep condolences" as he announced the new toll. Twenty-six of those who died were hospital patients, and the fire occurred in a wing housing critically-ill patients.

He said a special committee has been set up to cope with victims' needs.

"We have come up with emergency response. In Fengtai district, we set up such a steering committee to guide the treatment and aftershock handling. We have come up with very detailed plans with more personnel being mobilised. And we have come up with a lot of data analysis for the family members," he said.

Speaking at the same press briefing, Zhao Yang from Beijing's fire and rescue team said preliminary findings showed flammable painting materials had been ignited by sparks during construction work.

"Inside the building, there have been some construction work going on. During the construction operation, there have been some sparkles leading to the open fire," he said.

Zhao said authorities will continue to find out what went wrong and do more to prevent similar incidents from happening.

Sun Haitao from Beijing's public security bureau told a press conference that representatives from a company renovating the hospital had also been detained.

Social media users posted videos on Tuesday of people sitting on external air conditioning units, while others clinging to ropes jumped from the building.

Many family members have lost contact with patients, with the missing mostly older people with mobility problems, the China Youth Daily said in a separate report on Wednesday. (Additional reporting by AFP and Reuters)

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