Fire kills 13 at China earphone plant

chinaBeijing - A fire killed at least 13 people Thursday as it swept through an electrical plant making earphones in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, state media said.

Another four workers were seriously injured and 28 others were rescued by firefighters in Guangdong's Shantou city, the official Xinhua news agency quoted a fire service official as saying.

The fire broke out on the ground floor of the five-storey building at about 7 am, spreading to destroy some 202 square metres of the privately owned Zhang Peixiong plant, the fire service said.

More than 150 firefighters battled the blaze, extinguishing it about three hours after it started, the agency said.

Police were investigating the cause of the blaze, the report said.