Shanghai - Chinese state media report that unlicensed welders accidentally started a fire in a high-rise apartment building in Shanghai that has so far left 53 dead.
Police detained the four welders on criminal charges on Tuesday, a day after the fire broke out in the 28-storey high-rise that mainly housed retired teachers.
In addition to the dead, more than 70 people remain in hospital, and family members were still searching hospitals for unaccounted relatives.
The minister of police warned on Tuesday that such accidents may happen more often.
The minister Meng Jianzhu made the warning after inspecting the 25-storey apartment building where the fire broke out on Monday afternoon while in the middle of renovations.
China's rapid urban growth is throwing up vast numbers of new high-rise buildings, and while major fire disasters have been relatively rare compared to other developing countries, safety maintenance can be lacking. Meng said fire risks were rising.
“Now is a period when fire disasters can easily occur, and we have to conscientiously absorb the lessons of this disaster,” he told officials in Shanghai, according to the Ministry of Public Security website.
Residents and relatives searched hospitals for people who lived in the apartment in Jing'an district, many of them teachers and pensioners.
“All of my relatives and friends have been driving to all the different hospitals,” one resident of the apartment building who was not at home when the fire broke out told Reuters.
“As a family member, what can I do in this situation? How can I calm down? So I have only one thing to say - I ask the Communist Party to come and help quickly,” he said, declining to give his name.
A witness said he saw construction material burning before the flames climbed the scaffolding and spread, Xinhua reported.
Meng, the police minister, sought to head off public disquiet about the blaze in Shanghai, a city with an urban population of about 13 million which just finished hosting an expo intended to showcase it as a modern, global metropolis.
“Quickly smooth people's emotions and defuse conflicts,” he told officials. “Get to the bottom of the cause, clarify its nature, determine responsibility and deal with this sternly according to the law.”
The Shanghai municipal publicity office said 25 fire units and more than 100 fire engines had been sent to the scene.
In early 2009, a hotel being built next to the half-finished, hyper-modern new headquarters of Chinese state television in Beijing was consumed by fire after a fireworks display went wrong. One fireman died. - Reuters, Sapa-AP