‘Heavy casualties’ after foreign cargo ship catches fire in China’s Qingdao

A foreign cargo ship caught fire on Thursday morning while docked for repairs in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, causing heavy casualties, state broadcaster CCTV reported.The blaze started at around 11.15am at the state-owned Qingdao-beihai-shipyard" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="202322" data-entity-type="organization">Qingdao Beihai shipyard, the report said. It did not say how many were killed or injured.President Xi Jinping has given orders to step up search and rescue efforts, according to CCTV, a rare instance of instructions from the top leadership accompanying an accident report. Xi also called for a swift investigation into the cause of the fire and to ensure prompt follow-up and victim support, the report said.