Fears of 27 dead in Japan building fire
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The commercial building includes a mental health clinic on its fourth floor.
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Firefighters tackle the blaze (BBC)
A fire ripped through a mental health facility in Osaka Japan on Friday. 27 people are feared dead, as TV footage depicted firefighters tackling the blaze.
Through shattered and burned windows, the charred interior of the fourth story, which housed a mental health clinic, is visible.
The commercial eight-story building is located near the Kitashinchi train station in west Japan.
Public Japanese news broadcaster NHK cited sources reporting the fire was an arson attack, however, police did not respond to this claim and told AFP the fire was being investigated.
Out of the total 28 that were injured in the fire, an official from the fire department told AFP that 27 were believed to be deceased.
The flames were put out within half an hour according to the same official, after blazing across nearly 20 square meters.
According to Kyodo news agency, witnesses reported seeing an elderly man pouring liquid from a paper bag.
A woman who witnessed the fire told NHK that she had seen a woman trapped on the fourth floor.
Osaka is notable for being Japan's second-largest metropolitan and a key economic center after the capital Tokyo.
Japan's strict building regulations mean deadly fires are usually uncommon, however last year, a man was charged with murder due to a 2019 arson assault on a Kyoto animation studio that killed 36 people, the deadliest crime in years. In 2008, an arson assault on an Osaka video store killed 16 people. The convicted man is currently on death row.
