18 Die after fire Engulfed Chinese Foot Massage Parlour

Sunday’s fire at a foot massage parlour in east China’s Zhejiang Province killed 18 people and injured 18 others, police confirmed early Monday.

Flames engulfed “Zuxintang foot massage and bathing parlour” in Tiantai county in the city of Taizhou at 5:26PM, the county’s public security department said.

The police said eight people were found dead at the scene and 10 others died later in hospital.

According to the police, as at 5AM Monday, 18 people had been landed in hospital with injuries.

The flames were extinguished at around 7PM.

The parlor was on the first and second floors of a six-story building in a downtown community.

A tablet inscribed with “Zuxintang”, which literally translates into “parlor with fragrance of foot”, remains on the wreckage of its charred wall, but its doors, windows and furniture have been brought down to debris.

A car parked outside the parlor was also wrecked in the fire.

Following the accident, the neighbourhood has been cordoned off by police and colorful stripes hang around the building warning of danger.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

Tiantai, a small county in the hilly eastern areas of the rich Zhejiang Province, has 382,800 permanent residents.