Five dead, 40 hurt as blaze erupts at construction site in Tokyo and choking black smoke engulfs workers

Five people died and around 40 were injured after a fire broke out at a construction site in suburban Tokyo and smoke engulfed workers.

One of the five died after failing to escape from the basement of the building that was under construction in the city of Tama. Of the injured, about 30 were in a serious condition, according to the Tokyo Fire Department.

About 320 workers were at the construction site of the seven-story structure, with three stories above ground and four underground. Insulation material seems to have caught fire on Thursday after sparks were created when workers were cutting steel frames in the third basement level, police said.

The fire brigade, which received an emergency call at around 1.50pm said about 5,000 square meters of the 17,500 square meters of total floor space of the building was damaged. The blaze was nearly extinguished about six hours later.

Construction of the building started in October 2016 and was scheduled to finish this September, according to Hazama Ando Corp, the project general manager.

Workers who escaped from the site recalled their terror after being engulfed in black smoke.