Tokyo, Dec 17, (dpa/GNA) – More than two dozen people were feared dead, after a fire broke out in a high-rise building in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, with local media citing police sources as saying that police suspect the blaze was started deliberately.
So far, 24 people are confirmed dead, according to NHK broadcaster, citing police.
Earlier, 27 of 28 people injured in the fire were diagnosed with “cardiac arrest and respiratory arrest,” Japanese broadcaster NHK reported. The phrase is commonly used in Japan before deaths are officially confirmed.
The fire broke out within a medical clinic, reportedly on the fourth floor of a building near the Osaka train station.
NHK and news agency Kyodo cited police sources as saying that a man believed to be in his 60s was seen holding a paper bag with liquid leaking from it, and that the fire started where some of the liquid had dripped.
Firefighters were called at around 10:20 am (0120 GMT) and the fire was nearly extinguished by around 10:45 am, the local fire department was quoted by Kyodo as saying.
“When I looked outside from my nearby office, I saw an orange flame in the window on the fourth floor of the building,” a witness told Kyodo.
“A woman was waving her hand from the window on the sixth floor and seeking help.”
The incident occurred in Osaka’s Kitashinchi district where a number of high-end bars and nightclubs are located, Kyodo said.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the accident as “very tragic.”
GNA