Dozens of people were killed in a high-rise fire in Taiwan.
According to initial findings, at least 46 people died in the night fire in the city of Kaohsiung in the south of the country, the fire department said on Thursday.
More than 40 other people were injured.
The thirteen-story residential and commercial building had burned for hours in the early hours of the night until around 150 firefighters were able to bring the fire under control that morning.
According to unconfirmed reports, the fire broke out on the first floor of the 40-year-old house, as the CNA news agency reported.
Blocked escape routes made rescue work difficult
According to officials, escape routes were blocked, which also made rescue work difficult.
A local official said he heard a loud explosion in the middle of the night and woke up, according to the CNA.
Then he saw the flames in the building.
More than 100 people, many of them seniors with physical disabilities or dementia, lived in the building, the official said.
He expressed concern that many would not have managed to get out of the burning building.
Many people were trapped in the inhabited part of the high-rise between the seventh and eleventh floors, as the chief of the fire department reported according to the CNA news agency.
On the lower six floors were several abandoned, vacant restaurants, karaoke clubs, and a movie theater.
That is why the building was named "Haunted House".