20 Dead in Ship Fire at Qingdao Shipyard

Twenty people were reported dead and another five were declared missing after a foreign cargo ship caught fire during maintenance operations at a shipyard in the city of Qingdao, located in Shandong province, eastern China, local authorities reported.

The fire broke out on the morning of Thursday, September 10, while the vessel was undergoing maintenance at the facilities of State Shipbuilding Corporation Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., according to the municipal fire and rescue bureau.

A total of 42 people were on board the ship. Of these, 12 were safely evacuated, and five who were injured were transferred to the hospital, where their condition was reported as stable.

The fire was extinguished around 2:30 PM on Thursday. By 5:30 PM, rescuers had found 20 of the 25 people initially reported missing, all of them without vital signs.

Emergency management, fire and rescue, police, and health departments were immediately mobilized to carry out search and rescue operations after the incident.