AN entrepreneur who rented a dance hall in northeastern China has been detained after 233 people, mostly students, were suffocated by smoke or poisonous fumes when the building caught fire.
The manager and a handful of other customers narrowly escaped the fire which destroyed the Yi Yuan Song and Dance Hall at Fuxin, in Liaoning province, at about 1.30 pm on Sunday.
Another 16 people were injured, some of them suffering serious burns.
The manager had rented the hall from a local government work unit.
A high-level team which includes Chinese Deputy Minister of Public Security, Bai Jingfu, has been set up to investigate the country's most deadly blaze in 15 years.
Fourteen fire engines and 85 firemen took only eight minutes to control the fire but that was not fast enough to prevent the huge death toll.