Authorities in central China’s Henan province launched an investigation today to determine the cause of a fire that killed 13 students in a dormitory.

The fire that broke out at Yingcai School in Yanshanpu Village was reported to the fire department around 11:00 p.m. local time on Friday. Forty minutes later, firefighters put it out, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Thirteen students died in the fire and one more was injured, according to the same source.

Dozens of police officers were this morning in front of and inside a closed-off zone around the school, journalists from Agence France-Presse found.

“An investigation is underway inside the building. No one can enter,” an official at the scene told AFP.

Several windows on one side of the school were broken, the only indication of the tragedy unfolding inside the building.

A teacher at the school said the victims were students aged 9 and 10, according to the Hebei Daily newspaper.

In a video posted today on the Chinese social networking site Weibo, a man surnamed Fan, the father of a boy killed in the fire, says the parents’ blood samples were taken to compare their DNA with that of the victims.

“We, the parents, have not yet seen our children (…). We won’t be able to see them until the results are available,” Phan wrote.

“My child studied very hard,” she added.

“I can’t accept it,” he said.

No official explanation

At least one person connected to the school has been arrested, the New China news agency reported yesterday.

However, no official explanation for the cause of the fire has yet been given, with some state media suggesting the fire was started by an electric heater.

Yanshanpu Village is located on the outskirts of Nanyang, a city of nearly 10 million people located approximately 850 kilometers west of Shanghai.

Little information is available online, other than videos posted on social media featuring young children, mostly in kindergarten, wearing T-shirts with the school’s logo, as well as older children being taught calligraphy.

Local officials met yesterday to focus on the fire and safety measures to be taken going forward.

“Life is a priority and a rapid response is necessary,” said a report on the meeting, published today by the Nanyang Radio and Television Network.

Authorities are committed to “providing an emotional relief to the families of the victims,” ​​to “compensating them” and asking that the cause of the fire be “quickly determined,” according to the press release.