TOKYO (AP) – More than 20 people may have died in a building fire in Osaka, western Japan on Friday, fire officials said. Police were investigating the incident as a possible arson.
The flames began on the fourth floor of an eight-story building in a commercial and entertainment area of ​​Kitashinchi, said Akira Kishimoto, an official with the city’s fire department.
Twenty-seven people were found in cardiac arrest and another woman was injured, Kishimoto added. The woman was conscious, was evacuated by a ladder through a window and was being treated in a hospital.
All the victims were taken to nearby hospitals. Five people were pronounced dead and three others were revived, state television NHK and other media reported, but Japanese authorities declined to confirm those claims.
Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura offered his condolences to those killed in the tragedy.
“I am praying that as many lives as possible are saved,” he said.
The building houses an internal medicine clinic, an English school and other businesses. It is believed that many of the victims could be visitors to the clinic located on the fourth floor, officials of the fire department said.
Yoshimura said he ordered other hospitals and mental health clinics to treat the around 600 people who came to the affected medical center.
At the moment the cause of the fire and other details were unknown. Osaka police said they were investigating to determine whether the fire was intentional or an accident.
Local media reported that the authorities were looking for a man who, according to witnesses, was carrying a paper bag from which an unidentified liquid was dripping, but the police did not confirm that information.
Other people on other floors of the building are believed to have been evacuated, Kishimoto said.
Images from NHK television showed dozens of fire and police vehicles on the street next to the building, as well as numerous passers-by watching the events from the sidewalk in front.
The network quoted a witness who said he had heard a woman’s voice calling for help from the fourth floor. Another witness told TV Asahi that he saw flames and smoke coming from the windows of that plant when he went outside after hearing something happened.
A passerby told TBS television that several people who were taken out of the building were covered in blue tarps and appeared lifeless, adding that he saw a living woman who was rescued through a window.
In total, 70 firefighting vehicles were mobilized and the flames were mostly extinguished about 30 minutes after the emergency warning, authorities said.