Fire kills 22 at residential building in eastern China

A pre-dawn fire in a two-story residential building in eastern China killed 22 people and injured three on Sunday, authorities said.

The officials of Changshu, a city in Jiangsu Province, about 80 kilometers northwest of Shanghai, announced in a brief social media post that the fire broke out around 4:30 a.m. local time. The post said authorities put out the fire and finished cleaning the scene.

The cause remains under investigation.

It was not clear how many residents survived.

An earlier report by the official Xinhua News Agency said more than 20 people lived in the house, citing unnamed sources.

Phones at the city's publicity department rang unanswered.