Updated | Tuesday | 1:03 p.m. At least 42 people have died in a fire in an apartment building in downtown Shanghai, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.  Video of the fire engulfing the 28-story building in flames was broadcast on Chinese television and posted online by ITN:  The Associated Press added that Shanghai authorities said that the building was under renovation and the fire had sent residents scrambling down scaffolding to escape.  Many more clips of Monday’s fire were posted on Youku, a Chinese video-sharing site, including dramatic video of the rescue of a man from the scaffolding around the burning building:  (As a reader noted, some time after this post was originally published, the raw video of this incident was removed from Youku and replaced with the version above, apparently from Chinese television.)  The A.P. notes that a state-run news site, Eastday, reported that a construction worker who escaped from the building’s top floor said crews were installing insulation when the fire started.  These two video clips, apparently shot from a nearby building, were uploaded to YouTube on Monday by Mick Ryan, an Irish photographer living in China, who said he shot them from his balcony:  According to Xinhua, the fire “was mostly extinguished” by 6:30 p.m. local time and firefighters were still searching for survivors. The news agency added that the cause of the fire was still unknown, but quoted a resident of the tower who said that she had filed several complaints because, she said, “construction workers used to litter cigarette butts all around in the building.”
Video, from Chinese television and YouTube, posted online on Monday showed a fire in a high-rise apartment building that killed at least 42 people in Shanghai, according to local officials.