Smouldering incense suspected in temple blaze

SMOULDERING incense left inside a bamboo temple as offerings to the gods was probably responsible for one of two deadly fires that killed at least 93 people in China over the weekend, authorities said yesterday.

The temple fire killed 40 women in Wufeng village in eastern Zhejiang province, while 53 people died when a blaze swept through a crowded shopping mall in Jilin, some 1,000 miles farther northeast.

Preliminary investigations suggest the mall fire started in a temporary storehouse near a boiler room at the back of the building, according to the state news agency Xinhua.