Most apartment fire victims identified as students

Five people who died and 24 of those injured in a residential building fire on Sunday morning in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have been identified as students at Lijiang College affiliated with Guangxi Normal University in Guilin, the school announced on Monday.

The structure, a six-story residential apartment building in the village of Xilong in Yanshan district, caught fire around 6 am on Sunday. Fourteen other people who were not students were also hurt.

The local fire department found that electric bikes parked on the ground floor started the blaze.

The building is located opposite the college, and most residents are students.

Four people have been detained over their alleged connection to the fire, local police said on Sunday.

A work team organized by the local government and college has been set up to receive the families of the deceased. The injured were sent to the hospital.

The National Health Commission sent a team of medical experts to care for the injured, according to local authorities.

Zeng Jimou, deputy director of Blue Sky Rescue in Nanning, said that judging from photos of the scene, the charging area for electric bikes was too close to the rooms, and it is dangerous when more than 10 bikes are lined up together in such a narrow area without a smoke detector or fire extinguisher.

Generally speaking, students should live in dorms on campus, but a senior student who refused to give his name said many students prefer to rent a house off campus because of pets or privacy considerations.

"In this situation, the college asks students and their parents to sign a document promising to be responsible for safety and any possible consequences," the student said.

The Guilin police and the city's emergency response authority are taking steps to find and remove safety risks in the district.