He said that six night watchmen employed by the Dongdu Department Store, Wang Chengtai, Liu Xinqiang, Lai Dengge, Gong Songlong, Ding Xiaodong and Han Haofeng, were being held pending further investigation.

Managers of the commercial building and the supermarket on the second floor, Zhao Yu, Wang Lei, Lu Quanfu and Yang Zhengran have also been arrested and are to be sued.

Liu said the origin of the fire is still under investigation, but a result is expected to be announced this week.

Central government leaders, including President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and Vice-President Hu Jintao, have expressed their concern about the incident.

They were quoted by China Central Television as saying last night that “serious punishment” will be given to those responsible.

Local authorities are still busy dealing with problems arising from the accident.

Officials confirmed Wednesday that seven persons injured in the accident were now out of danger. One of the injured has returned home, and the other six are all undergoing treatment in local hospitals. All seven suffered from smoke inhalation.

Hou Junyi, vice-director of the publicity department of the Luoyang government, said Wednesday that all the paper work on the 309 victims had been finished, and relatives of the victims were waiting to confirm their identities.

The local government transferred more than 100 doctors from 15 districts to help with the dead, and dozens of photographs of each victim were taken for identification purposes.

The bodies of the dead have been sent to a local crematorium to await identification.

A total of 209 people registered that they recognized pictures of victims Wednesday in front of the Luoyang Hotel, where nothing but cries and prayers echoed through the old-fashioned building. Official statistics showed that most of the victims were from urban Laocheng, Chanhe and Xigong districts of Luoyang.

Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday that the building on fire had been warned about inadequate fire-safety systems since 1997. Officials said improvements had been ordered a week ago after a new inspection revealed safety breaches.

Two days after the disaster, Luoyang, a quiet ancient capital, was still mourning.

“I took a girl and her boyfriend to the building at 8 pm that night, it is terrible to think that they probably perished in the fire,” a taxi driver said. He said if he could have the time again he would take the young couple as far away as possible from the terrible building.

(China Daily 12/28/2000)