BEIJING, July  17, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Firefighters have pulled six dead
bodies from a shopping centre in southwestern China after extinguishing a blaze
that sent plumes of thick black smoke towering above the building, state
broadcaster CCTV said, adding some people are still trapped.

Around 30 others have been rescued from the shopping complex in the city
Zigong in Sichuan province, the channel said.

"Six people have been killed," state broadcaster CCTV said, adding that
search and rescue operations are continuing.

Footage broadcast by the channel and shared on social media showed thick
black smoke rising from the building.

"By 8:20 pm (1220 GMT), the fire had been extinguished," CCTV said.
The fire started in the early evening in a shopping centre at the foot of a
14-storey building, the channel said.

Other images shared on social media -- which AFP could not immediately
verify -- show people gathered in front of the burning building.
Fire engines and ambulances could be seen nearby.

Zigong's emergency services department received news about the fire 6:11
local time and immediately dispatched firefighters to extinguish the blaze, the
broadcaster said.

The emergency department has called on the public to "not to believe or
amplify rumours" about the fire.

Zigong, some 1,900 kilometres from capital Beijing, is home to nearly 2.5
million people.

- Lax safety -

Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China due to lax safety
standards and poor enforcement.

In January, dozens died after a fire broke out at a store in the central
city of Xinyu, with state news agency Xinhua reporting the blaze had been
caused by the "illegal" use of fire by workers in the store's basement.

At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned
from the disaster to avoid further tragedies.

That same month, a fire in a residential building killed at least 15 people.

That fire came just days after a late-evening blaze at a school in central
China's Henan province killed 13 schoolchildren as they slept in a dormitory.

Last year, a rare fire in a Beijing hospital claimed 29 lives in April and
forced desperate patients to jump from windows to escape.