A restaurant fire in northeastern China killed has 22 people and injured three more, Beijing’s state broadcaster said.

The blaze broke out on Tuesday at 12:25 local time at a restaurant in the Baita District, Liaoyang City, which is around 360 miles northeast of Beijing.

President Xi Jinping said that the blaze had caused ‘significant casualties’ and that the lessons from it were ‘profoundly serious’, Chinese state media reported. 

Xi called for ‘every effort to treat the injured, properly handle the aftermath for the deceased and provide support to their families, swiftly determine the cause of the fire, and pursue accountability in accordance with the law,’.

Footage shared online and verified by AFP showed fierce flames engulfing a two-storey restaurant and thick black smoke billowing skyward.

Other authenticated videos published on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, showed paramedics wheeling one victim on a stretcher into an ambulance and several firefighters battling the flames with hoses.

It is not clear what caused the fire to break out, but China’s premier Li Qiang called for a full-scale investigation into the deadly incident.