Seven killed in Chinese fire

Seven women workers were killed in a pre-dawn fire at a handicrafts workshop dormitory, a local official said today.

The blaze broke out at 3am on Wednesday morning in Yanhong town in southern China’s Guangdong province and raged for three hours before being brought under control, a fire official in the nearby city of Shantou said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, said the official, who gave only his surname, Wang.

Wang said the factory was owned by the town Government. He declined to say how many people were in the dormitory at the time of the fire.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that six of the bodies were found in the dormitory and that one was found in a nearby ditch.

Many workers, mostly young migrant women from other regions, are housed in dormitories adjacent to factories, despite regulations prohibiting such arrangements.

Other local officials refused to comment.