YANSHANPU: Authorities in central China’s Henan Province were on Sunday (Jan 21) looking into the cause of a night-time fire that killed 13 schoolchildren as they slept in a dormitory.
The inferno, which took place at the Yingcai School in Yanshanpu village, was reported to the local fire department at 11pm local time on Friday and was put out around 40 minutes later, official news agency Xinhua said.
Thirteen students died in the accident, while one other person suffered injuries.
Dozens of police were in and around a cordoned-off area near the school on Sunday morning, AFP journalists saw.
An official at the scene told AFP: “There is an investigation ongoing inside. Nobody can go in.”
Several windows on the side of the school were broken – the only obvious signs of a major accident at the building.
Vertical metal bars covered the school’s windows, AFP saw, while a permanent sign on the building’s facade read: “Enter the kindergarten happily and go home happily.”