BEIJING — Twenty people have been killed in a fire at a nursing home in north-east China, state media report.

The blaze in Chengde city, Hebei province, broke out on Tuesday night local time and was extinguished in about two hours.

Nineteen people survived the fire and were taken to hospital for observation, reports say.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the blaze, and a person in charge of the home has been detained. No other details were immediately available.

On social media, some called for a thorough investigation while others expressed sympathy for the elderly victims.

"Old people already have mobility issues," one Weibo user wrote. "I can't imagine how desperate they must have felt during the fire."

Nursing homes and elderly care facilities have doubled between 2019 and 2024, according to authorities, as China deals with a growing ageing population.

In 2023, 29 people died — many of them elderly — and dozens were injured after a private hospital in Beijing caught fire. — BBC