Fire in psychiatric clinic leaves at least nine people dead in Japan

It is estimated that at least 27 people died after a fire broke out in a psychiatric clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, and police are investigating arson, local media reported.

About 27 people suffered cardiac arrest, an Osaka city fire department official told Reuters. Another person was injured, the official said.

Nine people were confirmed dead at the hospital, TV Asahi reported.

Police are investigating suspected arson, including reports that a man started a fire in the building, Kyodo News told Kyodo News, citing people involved in the investigation.

An elderly man brought a bag into the building that leaked flammable liquid and started the fire. The man was considered a patient at the clinic, the Mainichi newspaper said.

The fire broke out shortly after the clinic, on the fourth floor of an office building, opened for business at 10 am local time (10 pm EDT) and was extinguished within 30 minutes, public broadcaster NHK reported.

NHK video shows smoke coming out of fourth-floor windows and roof.

“When I looked outside, I saw flames in the fourth-floor window of the building. A woman was waving her hands for help from the sixth-floor window,” a 36-year-old woman who works at a nearby company told Kyodo.

Located in a business district near Osaka’s main train station, the building also houses a beauty salon, a clothing store and an English language school, NHK said.

An arson fire at an animation studio in the city of Kyoto in 2019 killed more than 30 people and injured dozens.