Taipei: The death toll from fire in South Taiwan who swallowed the building last night increased to 46 dead, according to local officials who said at least 41 people were injured.
The 13-storey building caught fire around 3am on Thursday, fire officials in Kaohsiung City said.
A fire fighting statement said The Blaze was “very ferocious” and destroyed many floors.
At least 11 bodies were sent directly to the morgue, the Head of the Fire Extinguisher Li Ching-Hsiu told reporters at the scene.
In Taiwan, official confirmation of death can only be made in the hospital.
The video shown on television Taiwan showed an orange fire and smoke billowing from the lower floor of the building when firefighters sprayed water on the road.
After dawn, they can be seen spraying water to the middle floor of the building that is still burning from the elevated platform.
The cause of the fire was unclear, but firefighters recorded the most intense flames where many chaos was stacked, the fire extinguisher said.
Eyewitnesses told Taiwan’s media that they heard the explosion around 3am.
This building is around 40 years with shops downstairs and apartments above.
Downstairs really blackened.