At least 25 people were killed when fire broke out on a cargo ship undergoing maintenance at a shipyard in Qingdao, on China’s north-eastern coast, on Thursday, 10 September, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
42 people were aboard. 17 survived, five of them taken to hospital in stable condition.
What happened
The blaze began at about 11:15 local time (03:15 GMT) and was put out just over three hours later — Al Jazeera reports it was extinguished by 2:30pm, which matches that interval.
The vessel is the Ocean Melody, a 190-metre Liberia-flagged carrier that arrived in Qingdao on 31 August, according to the tracking site MarineTraffic, as reported by the Daily Mirror carrying BBC copy. It was under repair at the Beihai Shipbuilding Company yard, CNN reported.
The cause is unclear. An eyewitness told AFP that thick smoke rose from the ship but that he heard no explosion.
A note on the survivor figures
The two accounts describe the survivors differently and both are correct. The BBC copy says 17 were evacuated, five of whom are in hospital. CNN and Al Jazeera say 12 were evacuated safely and five were hospitalised. Those are the same 17 people, split between uninjured and injured rather than counted as separate groups — a distinction worth making because the two numbers otherwise read as a discrepancy.
Official response
President Xi Jinping called for “all-out” search and rescue efforts and said authorities must “strictly hold those responsible to account,” adding that “all regions and relevant departments must draw profound lessons from this incident.” Premier Li Qiang pressed for the rescue of anyone trapped and said authorities should “strictly prevent secondary disasters.”
Qingdao ranks among the world’s busiest ports. The fire comes about a month after a shipyard explosion in the south-eastern province of Fujian killed a rescue worker and injured 12.
Not reported
None of the reports gives the nationalities of the dead, says whether the casualties were shipyard workers or crew, identifies the vessel’s owner or operator, or states what work was under way when the fire started. No cause has been established and no investigation findings have been published.
