At least 10 people were killed in a huge fire at a hotel in eastern China, the official Xinhua news agency said Saturday.

The blaze broke out at the four-storey HNA Platinum Mix Hotel Saturday morning in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province, and took nearly two hours to extinguish, Xinhua said.

Over 260 residents of a 24-storey apartment building connected to the hotel were evacuated.

Video footage of the scene showed thick black smoke billowing out the windows of the building before rising in a towering plume.

Photos showed firefighters shooting jets of water at smoking, cracked wall panels, and working in a team to lift a shirtless, unconscious victim from the wreckage.

Three of 16 people rushed to hospitals died while in care, and firefighters found seven bodies amid the hotel debris.

The fire was caused by the “cutting of decoration materials”, Xinhua cited initial investigations as saying, without providing further detail. Seven people have been taken into police custody.

Fire safety procedures are routinely ignored in China, with exit doors often locked and escape passages blocked in buildings across the country.

Earlier this month, 18 people were killed when a foot massage parlour caught fire in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

Seven died in a fire in an elderly care facility last month.

A firefighter was hailed a hero after footage of him running down a residential block with a burning gas tank in his hands surfaced online.

The incident occurred in a housing block in Xiangyang, China’s Hubei province.

Authorities believe the fire started while the home owner was cooking dinner.

When the rescue team arrived, they discovered that the valve of the gas tank was broken and could not be turned off.

Firefighter Wan Wentao said he tried to put out the fire three times with a wet cloth and a bed sheet, but to no avail.

“I was only worried that the gas tank might explode. So I just wanted to move it out of the way immediately,” he added.

Once safely in an open area, firefighters extinguished the gas tank in about 10 minutes, CCTV reported.

Mr Wan said he was very nervous and the flaming tank scalded him, but he added that the residents’ safety was of paramount importance.

His heroic deed certainly didn’t go unnoticed.

One resident said: “I saw him running down with the burning gas tank.

“The flame was so strong. They risked their lives for us, it is amazing.”

debwong@sph.com.sg

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said Yoga can be the answer to the problems of the world and bring world peace as it can create the “spirit of oneness”.

Speaking in Coimbatore where he unveiled a 112-foot tall Shiva statue on the occasion of Maha Shivratri, Modi said: “Today whole world wants peace, not only from wars and conflicts but peace from stress, and for that we have Yoga. If the body is a temple of the mind, yoga creates a beautiful temple.”

“India has given the gift of Yoga to the world, by practising Yoga a spirit of oneness is created. The essence of yoga has not changed. Yoga is the catalytic agent for transformation,” he added.

Modi also warned against rejecting an idea just because it is ancient.

“Rejecting an idea just because its ancient, can be potentially harmful,” he said.

The statue dedicated to ‘Adiyogi’ (a form of Lord Shiva who according to the Hindu tradition is considered the first of yogis) has been funded by Isha Foundation, founded by the popular yoga guru Jaggi Vasudev.