A blaze swept through a wholesale mall in west Beijing, taking firefighters five hours to extinguish it on Friday morning (October 11).
Smoke was seen rising from the charred steel structure, and firefighters were still hosing down the four-storey building as of 11 a.m. local time (0300 GMT).
The fire first broke at a McDonald's restaurant, on the second floor of the Xilongduo garment and small commodities wholesale market at around 3 a.m. local time on Friday (1900 GMT on Thursday, October 10), state television CCTV said.
Flames spread through the entire building with 49 fire engines dispatched to the site, CCTV said.
Police cordoned off the shopping mall and blocked roads surrounding it to prevent the fire from spreading to other buildings, it added.
No casualties have been reported and the cause of the fire remains unknown.
