LEAD: Nine killed in apartment block fire in Hong Kong

Nov 30, 2011, 7:03 GMT

Hong Kong - Nine people died and 30 others, including a 1-year-old child, were injured Wednesday when fire swept through a block of flats in a suspected arson attack in Hong Kong.

The fire broke out in the early hours of the morning in hawker stalls, in the densely populated Mongkok district, and spread to a nearby residential block, a fire services department spokesman said.

Some residents fled to the roof of the building to be rescued by firemen using ladders, as flames spread from the ground floor upward.

Nine charred bodies were found at the scene, while 30 people were sent to hospital for treatment. At least four of the dead were found on the stairways.

Firefighters eventually brought the fire under control more than eight hours after it had began.

Senior fire officers at the scene said the blaze was being treated as suspicious as it appeared to have been started deliberately. The fire had begun in more then one location, they said.

Hawker stalls in the same area were targeted in December 2010 in an arson attack that left several people injured.

Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang visited survivors in hospital and said the blaze would be thoroughly investigated.

He said measures taken after last year's fire, such as increading the distance between hawker stalls, had clearly not been enough and more needed to be done.

'This is a serious tragedy,' he told reporters. 'Nine people have lost their lives. We are sparing no resources.'

Wednesday's fire is the most serious in recent years in Hong Kong, one of the world's most densely populated cities. Fires in high rise blocks are a recurring concern.

In June, a woman and two children died and at least 17 other people were injured when an early-morning fire spread to a Hong Kong apartment block from a ground floor shop.

Hong Kong's worst fire of modern times was in 1996, when 41 people died and 81 were injured when welding work set off a blaze in a 16-storey commercial building in the Kowloon district.