Arson suspected in Japan clinic blaze with 27 feared dead - media (updated)
17/12/2021 03:39
* Fire swept through psychiatry clinic in Osaka
* Man seen with bag leaking liquid - NHK
* More than 20 people confirmed dead - TV Asahi
(Updates death toll, adds comment)
By Kiyoshi Takenaka
OSAKA, Japan, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Fire swept through a
psychiatry clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, with
27 people feared dead and police investigating possible arson
after media reported a man had spilt a liquid that fuelled the
blaze.
The fire broke out on the fourth floor of an office building
in a busy district of the western city at around 10 a.m. (0100
GMT), public broadcaster NHK said.
"Most of the people who lost their lives could be medical
workers or patients at the clinic. This is unbearable," said
Yumiko Inoue, a doctor from a nearby hospital told Reuters, as
she looked up at the building's charred windows from across the
street.
A man who looked to be in his 50s or 60s was seen carrying a
bag filled with liquid into the building, where he out it down
near a heater and knocked it over, spilling the liquid and
starting the fire, Kyodo News reported.
Other media said the man was believed to be a patient of the
clinic, and that he carried a bag leaking liquid into the
reception area before the fire started.
Twenty-four people were confirmed dead, NHK said. An
official at Osaka city's fire department earlier told Reuters
that 27 people had suffered from cardiopulmonary arrest, the
term used in Japan before a death is officially confirmed.
The fire was largely extinguished within 30 minutes,
according to NHK, after engulfing a narrow, 20-square metre (215
square foot) room in the clinic. Footage showed smoke pouring
out of the windows of the building's fourth floor and roof.
CONDOLENCES
Located in a shopping and entertainment district not far
from Osaka's main train station, the building also houses a
beauty salon, a clothing shop and an English-language school,
NHK said.
"When I looked outside I saw orange flames in the
fourth-floor window of the building. A woman was waving her
hands for help from the sixth floor window," a 36-year-old woman
who works in an office nearby told Kyodo News.
By evening most of the fire trucks were gone and the
clinic's burned out, broken windows were covered with blue
tarpaulin.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offered condolences and said
authorities were working to determine the cause.
The father of a doctor who ran the clinic was unable to
reach him by mobile phone, he told the Yomiuri newspaper.
"Around noon I heard there was news of a fire on television
and was surprised. My wife went to the site but we still don't
know what's going on. I can't get through to my son's phone," he
said.
The clinic's website was not accessible but an internet
archive from earlier this year showed it treated patients for
issues from depression and panic to sleep apnoea and anaemia.
An arson attack at an animation studio in the city of Kyoto
in 2019 killed more than 30 people and injured dozens.
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(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Rocky Swift, Sakura Murakami,
Daniel Leussink and Makiko Yamazaki
Writing by Chang-Ran Kim, Jane Wardell and David Dolan; Editing
by Robert Birsel and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
((ran.kim@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-4520-1228))