Police have detained a suspect alleged of deliberately starting a hospital fire that killed four people in Huangshi city, Hubei province, according to the city government.
Xinhua reports that the 27-year-old suspect surnamed Li, who comes from Erzhou city in Hubei, admitted to setting fire on the No. 2 Hospital of Huangshi around 4 a.m., according to a spokesman for the government.
Four people died in the fire which broke out in the early hours of the morning on the ground floor of the inpatient building. One patient died from jumping out of the building, one person died at the site and two other patients died in intensive care.
The fire broke out around 4:20 a.m. and firefighters had put it out around 4:50 a.m. More than 200 square meters on the ground floor have been completely destroyed in the fire.
The motives behind the man’s act of arson have not been disclosed. It’s also unclear if this is another act of violence arising from conflict between medical staff and a relative of a previous patient.