At least twenty-seven people were feared dead after a fire broke out on Friday morning at a psychiatry clinic on the fourth floor of an eight-story building in the Japanese city of Osaka.
According to an official at the city’s fire department, 27 people were in cardiopulmonary arrest, a term used in Japan before death is officially confirmed, while one person was injured.
Police suspected arson after reports that a man had started the fire in the building in a busy shopping district.
Local media reported that an elderly man believed to be a patient at the clinic brought a bag into the building that leaked flammable liquid.
The fire department said it deployed seventy-five fire trucks at the scene and brought the fire under control after about 30 minutes.
Last year, a similar incident killed 36 people at a Kyoto animation studio, the country’s deadliest violent crime in decades.