Three firemen die in China office-block blaze

BEIJING (Reuters) - Three firemen were killed battling a blaze that has raged for nearly 20 hours through a 12-storey shop and office building in remote northwest China, state media reported on Thursday.

Dehui International Plaza in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang autonomous region, was home to 2,000 workers selling clothes, cosmetics and toys up to the fourth floor. The fifth to 12th floors were used as offices.

The fire broke out on Wednesday evening in a mop stall on the first floor and soon spread to an adjacent 20-storey hotel which had been evacuated.

"Fire fighters had stopped containing the initial fire in the Dehui International Plaza since the building might collapse," Xinhua news agency said.

"They had instead turned their attention to the 20-storey hotel, which had been cleared of occupants." The hotel building was still ablaze, Xinhua said.

The lower floors of the shop and office building had been "totally burnt out", Xinhua added, while the 10th to 12th floors were also still ablaze.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom, editing by Nick Macfie and David Fogarty)