Massive fire engulfs residential complex in Hong Kong: four dead

Several high-rise buildings in a residential complex in Hong Kong caught fire, with four people reported dead, UNN reports with reference to CNN.

Details

A fire spread to several apartment buildings in a residential complex in Hong Kong, killing four people and trapping others inside, authorities said.

Videos from the scene show at least five buildings, located next to each other, engulfed in flames erupting from the windows of many apartments. Firefighters from above, using aerial ladders, extinguished the intense flames with water.

The raging fire sent up a column of flames and thick smoke, spreading through the bamboo scaffolding and construction nets erected around the complex in the Tai Po district. According to available data, the residential complex consisted of eight blocks with almost 2,000 apartments.

Addendum

The Hong Kong government reported four deaths and the hospitalization of three other people. Two of the injured are in critical condition, and the third is stable, according to a brief statement.

Police said they received numerous reports of people trapped in the affected buildings.

Hong Kong media reported that one of the deceased was a firefighter, but this information has not yet been confirmed.

The fire was detected in the afternoon and was assigned a danger level of No. 4, the second highest, the Fire Services Department said.

Tai Po is a suburban area in the New Territories, in the northern part of Hong Kong, near the border with Shenzhen (mainland China).