BEIJING: At least 500 high school children were feared killed in a fire that swept through a cinema hall in Urumai in China’s north ‘west Xuijiang province last week, delayed reports reaching here said. ‘Another report confirmed 314 deaths and said at least 150 others were undergoing emergency treatment in hospitals. ‘The cause of the fire was not yet known and the reports said there were around 1,000 high school children watching either a movie or a dance performance in the jam-packed cinema hall when the fire engulfed the area. ‘This is a second major fire in China in the past two weeks. As many as 234 college students, mostly girls, were killed when a fire razed to the ground a dance hall in November and at Fuxin city in northeast China’s Liaoning province.
Meanwhile, the official China daily reported that a blast in a garbage dump in Chongqiug in southeast China’s Sichuan province killing five persons and injuring four on Sunday last. The nine garbage collectors were buried in the rubbish when the garbage disposal site exploded due to generation of methane gas. Continuous rain and high temperature in the area had produced methane causing the explosion in the dump.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 16, 1994
