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Stephen Chen

Police in China have arrested one person over a suspected arson attack on a dormitory that left 22 people dead in Changshu, Jiangsu province, early on Sunday.
A manhunt was under way for other suspects.
The fire broke out at about 4.30am and quickly engulfed the two-storey brick house in Hushan township rented to a nearby restaurant to house staff, The Beijing News reported.
Jiangsu police said the doors to the house had been locked from the outside, trapping most of the occupants inside. Traces of petrol we also found at the scene.

Three people escaped the blaze with minor injuries.
All of the dead were found inside the ruins of the house after firefighters extinguished the blaze, the city government said.
Jiangsu police said they identified a number of suspects from surveillance footage and wanted notices had been issued for them.
Over 100 firemen, 50 fire engines and 12 hours ... what it took to put out massive blaze in Chinese migrant worker community
Police were questioning people linked to the restaurant, according to one of its employees. The restaurant worker said all of the victims were colleagues and had lived in the house for more than two years, the newspaper ­reported.
“There were more than 20 people, from all over the country. [They were] about 25 years of age on average. [They] included waiters, waitresses and chefs,” the worker was quoted as saying.
With rents in Chinese cities out of the reach of many workers, employers often provide accommodation for their staff to compensate for low salaries.

But the dormitories provided are often cramped and fire hazards, with residents using electronic appliances such as rice cookers hooked up to networks of exposed wiring, according to ­previous mainland media ­reports.
The dormitories are also rarely equipped with fire extinguishers or have fire escapes, according to Chinese authorities.
Last month, a landlord in Sanya, Hainan province, was jailed for 15 days over a fire at his flat that he had leased to 72 tenants, according to Hainan Daily. No casualties were reported in the fire.


Manhunt in China after 22 killed in arson attack on dormitory

Police believe a fire that killed 22 people in Changshu, Jiangsu province, on Sunday morning was deliberately lit. Photo: Handout

A pre-dawn fire in a two-story house in eastern China on Sunday killed 22 people and injured three, authorities said. The owner of the house was taken away for investigation, the website of the PeopleÕs Daily reported. Police did not rule out human negligence is a reason behind the fire, the report said. The city of Changshu in Jiangsu province, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Shanghai, said in a brief social media post that the fire broke out around 4:30 a.m. It said authorities put out the fire and finished cleaning the scene. The cause remains under investigation. ItÕs not clear how many residents survived. An earlier report by the official Xinhua News Agency said more than 20 people lived in the house, citing unnamed sources. Many of them are aged around 25, and non local people. Phones at the cityÕs publicity department rang unanswered. The State Administration of Work Safety has sent a working team to the scene for investigation.

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