A huge fire broke out in a high-rise building in Taiwan: 46 people were killed

After hours of hard work, the fire was brought under control

41 people burnt in the accident were shifted to the hospital: the fire was so fierce that some floors of the building collapsed.

TAIPEI: A fire broke out in a high-rise building in a large southern Taiwanese city early yesterday morning, taking hours to extinguish the massive blaze.

Unfortunately, 46 people were burnt to death in the accident while 41 people were burnt to a lesser extent, authorities said on Thursday. From the lowest floor of a 13-story building in the city of Kaohsiung, huge flames were erupting and plumes of smoke were billowing.

Firefighters rushed to the scene and fired water cannons into the street and over a platform above. A statement from the city's fire department said the blaze, which broke out at 3.00am on Wednesday, was "extremely fierce" and that it had destroyed several floors of the building.

The rescue squad wasn't called for him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Till this afternoon, the jawans had sent 32 bodies to the morgue, while 55 people were taken to the hospital for treatment out of which 14 died on the way. The official death toll in Taiwan is released by the hospital

Even today, firefighters were seen spraying water from the aerial platform above and down the street from the middle floor of the building as smoke could still be seen coming out of some of the middle floors.

A woman told Taiwanese TV that her parents, aged 60 to 70, were still trapped in the building. The wreckage of the building had spread to the surrounding street to such an extent that it had caused severe obstruction to the vehicles of the relief and rescue department to reach the scene, Taiwan's Central News Agency said.