Authorities reported that at least 24 people have died after a massive fire broke out at a building in Osaka, Japan, in one of the area's shopping districts, engulfing the fourth floor at around 10:18 a.m. local time.
There were reports sent to the local fire department about the fire in the Kita district, where firefighters almost fully extinguished the flames by 10:46 a.m., the fire department said. In a statement, Osaka Police said that their officers were investigating the fire and looking to determine the cause of the accident, suspecting a potential arson case.
Japanese Fire
A video recording of the accident showed a fleet of fire trucks approaching the site of the fire and firefighters battling the massive flames. The fire caused smoke to billow out of the windows, with photographs showing charred window frames and the inside of the fourth floor of the building destroyed, CNN reported.
Police revealed they were searching for a man in his 50s or 60s who witnesses say they saw was carrying a paper bag that had unidentified liquid dripping. Some officials believe the suspect could be among the 24 people killed in the incident or is one of the three people who were resuscitated and are in serious conditions. Authorities also suspect him to have fled the scene, a police investigator, who requested anonymity, said.
The first fire officials who arrived at the scene of the fire discovered 27 people in a state of cardiac arrest, said Akira Kishimoto, an official from the Osaka fire department. They found one woman conscious, who they brought down from the building using an aerial ladder while she was on the sixth floor of the building. Officials quickly transported the victim to a hospital where she is being treated for her wounds.
Arson Case
Japanese authorities have a custom of describing victims with no vital signs as being in a state of "shinpa teishi" which is a state of cardiac and pulmonary arrest. They do not confirm deaths until they are pronounced at hospitals and until they complete other necessary procedures, ABC News reported.
The accident, if it really was a case of arson, would be the third time in less than two months in the country that has one of the lowest murder rates in the world. The incident also comes six weeks after a train rider wearing a Joker costume injured 17 people in Tokyo after he attacked passengers, brandishing a knife, and trying to set ablaze on board.
Authorities arrested another individual early last month on arson charges after he set a fire inside a bullet train in Kyushu in the southern parts of Japan. The fire on Friday came two years after the most notorious case of arson in the country's modern history. The incident killed 33 people and occurred at an anime studio in Kyoto, near Osaka, and injured dozens of other residents, quickly becoming one of the country's worst cases of mass murder in decades, the New York Times reported.
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