Deadly fire engulfs Chinese hotel

Photo by. XINHUA HARBIN — A hotel fire that broke out Saturday morning in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, has left 18 people dead, the provincial fire department confirmed.

The deadly fire started at 4:36 a.m. Saturday at Beilong Hot Spring Leisure Hotel in Songbei District. It was put out at 7:50 a.m.

During the search, firemen cleared the area twice, finding 18 bodies and sending 19 people injured to hospital.

The Ministry of Emergency Management has urged all-out efforts in the resue and investigation, and sent a work team to Harbin to guide the site work.

Meanwhile, firefighters battling a large forest fire near Berlin had stopped its spread on Friday, a local official said, warning the danger from the blaze had not yet passed.

“The situation has not yet calmed down,” a spokesman for the interior ministry of Brandenburg state told the DPA news agency.

Around 600 people fled their homes in three villages in Brandenburg 50 kilometers southwest of the capital late Thursday as firefighters battled the blaze from the air with water-bombing helicopters.