Northeast China restaurant fire kills 17

Seventeen people were killed and another three injured in a restaurant fire in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, local authorities said Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

The local fire brigade received reports of the incident that occurred in the Changchun high-tech industrial development zone at 12:40 p.m. Wednesday. Firefighters immediately rushed to the site for rescue.

As of 3 p.m., the on-site search and rescue work had ended.

The injured are being treated in a local hospital and the cause of the incident is being investigated.

The Ministry of Emergency Management said that it had dispatched a work team to the site to provide guidance for the rescue work.

The ministry called for efforts to handle the incident in a safe and scientific manner and ascertain the causes of the fire as soon as possible.