53 dead as 4 held over Shanghai fire

Beijing - Police in Shanghai detained four people on Tuesday as the death toll rose to 53 following a fire at a 28-storey apartment building in China's largest commercial city, state media said.

Reports did not identify the four suspects but the state-run Xinmin Net website said an initial safety investigation had blamed the fire on negligence by "unlicensed electric welding workers".

The fire broke out mid-afternoon on Monday on scaffolding outside the building in Shanghai's Jing'an district and spread quickly to most of the interior.

Hospitals were treating more than 70 injured people on Tuesday after 25 firefighting teams using 61 fire engines had rescued more than 100 people, reports said.

Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu on Tuesday called for a "thorough investigation" of the cause of the fire, which was extinguished by early Monday evening.

People found responsible for the fire would be "punished in accordance with law", Meng was quoted as saying.

Most of the 180 households registered in the late-1990s building were teachers and their families, including many retired teachers.

相關中文新聞：摘自騰訊網(wǎng)

上午11時最新消息，現(xiàn)已初步查明，上海“11.15”特別重大火災事故，是一起責任事故。事故原因是由無證電焊工違章操作引起的。四名犯罪嫌疑人已被公安機關依法刑事拘留。

上海膠州路住宅樓嚴重火災發(fā)生后，約100名傷者被緊急送到上海市靜安區(qū)中心醫(yī)院、華東醫(yī)院、華山醫(yī)院、瑞金醫(yī)院、普陀區(qū)人民醫(yī)院等。截至16日上午9時30分，上海膠州路特大火災事故已導致53人死亡，另有70人正在醫(yī)院接受治療，其中17人傷勢嚴重。