At least 25 people were killed after a Liberia-flagged cargo ship docked for repairs caught fire in China’s eastern port of Qingdao.
The ship with 42 people on board was undergoing repairs at Beihai Shipbuilding Co at the port of Qingdao, a major shipping hub in China.
A photo released by state media Xinhua identified the ship as the Ocean Melody, which sails under a Liberian flag, according to the tracking website VesselFinder.
The fire erupted shortly after 11am local time on Thursday and was extinguished by 2.30pm, according to reports. Twelve people were safely evacuated from the ship, among them five people were rushed to the hospital, where they remained in a stable condition.
Videos online showed workers on the ship attempting to put out the fire.
The vessel had arrived for repairs in Qingdao on 31 August after sailing north from Jiangsu province and was due to depart on Sunday. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.
China’s president Xi Jinping issued rare “important instructions” to urgently conduct rescues of missing people on the ship. Mr Xi also called for ensuring “preventive measures are thoroughly implemented” and “resolutely prevent major and catastrophic accidents”.
Premier Li Qiang, the second in command in the chain of leadership, ordered emergency teams to “focus on rescuing trapped personnel and treating the injured”, while “preventing secondary disasters”, according to state media.
He directed China’s safety authority to thoroughly identify workplace risks and take concrete steps to prevent further incidents.
Beihai Shipbuilding is part of the state-controlled China State Shipbuilding Corporation, the world’s largest shipbuilder. Its main businesses include shipbuilding and ship repairing, according to Beihai Shipbuilding’s website.
This is the second fire incident at a shipyard in China in less than a month. An explosion at a shipyard in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian on 13 August killed one firefighter.
Fujian, which lies across the Taiwan Strait from democratically governed Taiwan, is a significant shipbuilding and ship-repair hub.
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