A FIRE in a karaoke hall killed at least 11 people in northern China early yesterday.

The blaze broke out at about 4:30 a.m. in the Blue Sky foot massage parlor on the ground floor of a two-story building known as Gedu Karaoke Hall in Chengde City, Hebei Province.

The parlor was not open for business at the time and the owner and his staff were sleeping in the residential quarters on the second floor.

The male owner and 10 masseuses in their 20s were killed. Two others were rescued.

A peddler alerted the police at 4:47 a.m. after he saw smoke pouring out from the building. The fire was extinguished at about 5:10 a.m.

Photographs posted on the Internet showed the entrance of the building to be scorched and the windows of the first floor broken.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation and the local public security bureau has not released any further details.

The building was used both for commercial and residential purposes.

China has an estimated 100,000 karaoke bars, which rack up some 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) in revenue each year, according to the China Daily.

Last July, a blast at a karaoke bar in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province left 25 dead and 33 injured.(SD-Xinhua)