A restaurant fire in northeastern China killed 22 people and injured three on Tuesday, Beijing鈥檚 state broadcaster said.
The blaze erupted in Liaoyang City, about 580 kilometres northeast of the capital Beijing.
鈥楢t 12:25pm (0425 GMT) on April 29, a fire broke out at a restaurant,鈥� CCTV said.
鈥楢s of 2:00pm, the incident has resulted in 22 deaths and three injuries,鈥� it added.
President Xi Jinping said that the blaze had caused 鈥榮ignificant casualties鈥� and that the lessons from it were 鈥榩rofoundly serious鈥�, CCTV said.
Xi called for 鈥榚very effort to treat the injured, properly handle the aftermath for the deceased and provide support to their families, swiftly determine the cause of the fire, and pursue accountability in accordance with the law,鈥� the report added.
Footage shared online and verified by AFP showed fierce flames engulfing a two-storey restaurant and thick black smoke billowing skyward.
Other authenticated videos published on Douyin, China鈥檚 version of TikTok, showed paramedics wheeling one victim on a stretcher into an ambulance and several firefighters battling the flames with hoses.
Deadly fires are relatively common in China due to lax building codes and an often slipshod approach to workplace safety.
This month, 20 people died in a fire at a nursing home in northern China鈥檚 Hebei province.
And in January, a fire at a vegetable market in Zhangjiakou city, northwest of Beijing, killed eight people and injured 15.
A month before that, nine people died in a fire at a construction site in eastern China鈥檚 Rongcheng city.
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