Beauty salon fire in southern China kills nine
A fire that gutted a fifth-floor beauty salon in southern China has killed nine people and left eight others injured.
The blaze was in a salon in the city of Zhanjiang in Guangdong province, the Beijing Morning Post reported.
The shop's steel door was locked tight, preventing neighbours from rescuing those inside, the paper said.
Those killed included four who died of burns and five who died after jumping from windows. A fire official in Zhanjiang confirmed the death toll and said the fire's cause is still under investigation.
Newspapers ran photos showing the shop's interior completely destroyed except for bare concrete and metal bed frames. Officials were also shown visiting a badly-burned victim in hospital.
It was not clear whether victims included customers. Many beauty parlours operate as fronts for prostitution and stay open around the clock.
Operators of karaoke bars, cinemas, internet cafes and other businesses in China frequently ignore fire safety rules or fail to provide emergency exits.
Earlier this month, a fire in an internet cafe in Beijing that lacked fire exits killed 24 people, many of them students.
In December 2000, a fire at a discotheque in the central city of Luoyang killed 309 people. Investigators blamed the high death toll on locked emergency exits.
