QINGDAO, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Twenty people were confirmed dead and five others remained missing after a foreign cargo ship caught fire during maintenance at a shipyard in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, on Thursday, local authorities said.
The fire broke out at around 11:15 a.m. when the ship was undergoing maintenance at China State Shipbuilding Corporation Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., according to the municipal fire and rescue bureau.
A total of 42 people were aboard the ship. Twelve were safely evacuated, and five injured individuals were taken to the hospital, where they are in stable condition.
The blaze was extinguished at around 2:30 p.m. As of 5:30 p.m., rescuers had found 20 of the 25 people initially reported missing, all with no signs of life.
Emergency management, fire and rescue, police, medical departments were immediately mobilized to carry out search and rescue operations following the incident. ■
