Japan building fire leaves 27 feared dead in suspected arson attack
- Video footage showed smoke pouring out of a psychiatry clinic at an eight-storey building in Osaka
- An elderly man reportedly brought a bag into the building that leaked flammable liquid and was ignited
A fire swept through a psychiatry clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, with 27 people feared dead and police reported to be investigating possible arson.
The blaze broke out on the fourth floor of an office building in a busy district of the western city around 10am (local time), public broadcaster NHK said.
“Most of the people who lost their lives could be medical workers or patients at the clinic. This is unbearable,” said Yumiko Inoue, a doctor from a nearby hospital.
A man who looked in his 60s was seen carrying a bag that was leaking liquid into the clinic’s reception area before the fire started, NHK said, citing people close to the probe.
Twenty-four people were confirmed dead, NHK said. An official at Osaka city’s fire department earlier said that 27 people had suffered from cardiopulmonary arrest, the term used in Japan before a death is officially confirmed.
A doctor at one of the hospitals treating the victims said he believed many of them died after inhaling carbon monoxide as they had limited external injuries.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said “many people have died or being in a state of heart and lung failures,” without disclosing the exact number.
Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura offered condolences. In total, 70 fire engines were mobilised to fight the blaze, which was fully extinguished more than six hours later, officials said.
Footage showed smoke pouring out of the windows of the fourth floor, as well as the roof.
“When I looked outside I saw orange flames in the fourth-floor window of the building. A woman was waving her hands for help from the sixth floor window,” a 36-year-old woman who works in an office nearby told Kyodo News.
Located in a shopping and entertainment district not far from Osaka’s main railway station, the building also houses a beauty salon, a clothing shop and an English-language school, NHK said.
By evening most of the fire trucks were gone. The burned out, broken windows were covered with blue tarpaulin.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offered his “sincere condolences” to the victims and sympathy to those injured in the incident.
“We must get to the bottom of this horrible case. We must clarify the cause and how it happened. And we must take measures to prevent the same thing from happening again,” he said.
The father of a doctor who ran the clinic was unable to reach him by mobile phone, he told the Yomiuri newspaper. “Around noon I heard there was news of a fire on television and was surprised. My wife went to the site but we still don’t know what’s going on. I can’t get through to my son’s phone,” he said.
The clinic’s website was not accessible but an internet archive from earlier this year showed it treated patients for issues from depression and panic to sleep apnoea and anaemia.
Another woman who said she saw smoke coming from the window told Kyodo that power briefly went out in the surrounding area.
In 2019 at the Kyoto Animation studio, an attacker stormed into the building and set it on fire, killing 36 people and injuring more than 30 others. The incident shocked Japan and drew an outpouring of grief from anime fans worldwide.
In 2001, an intentionally set blaze in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district killed 44 people – the country’s worst known case of arson in modern times.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
