A fire in a Beijing hospital has killed 21 people and forced evacuation of dozens of patients. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Twenty-one people have died on Tuesday in a fire at a Beijing hospital that forced the evacuation of dozens of patients, Chinese state media reported.
Emergency response teams first received word just before 1 pm (0500 GMT) that a fire had broken out at the Beijing Changfeng Hospital in the capital city's Fengtai District, the Beijing Daily report said.
Staff removed 71 patients, but it was not immediately clear if all the occupants of the hospital had been found and evacuated from the fire, which was in the east building of the private hospital's inpatient department.
Videos of the fire circulating on social media show black smoke billowing from the building, with some people climbing out of the windows using what appears to be makeshift ropes made out of bedsheets. Others took refuge on air conditioning units outside the windows.
Beijing Changfeng Hospital is in the capital's western urban area, about 25 minutes by car from central Tiananmen Square.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, the reports said.
