Death toll rises to 22 at Jakarta office building fire

Police said 22 people died in a fire at a seven-storey office block in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.

The fire was extinguished on Tuesday and the bodies found were sent to the hospital for identification, Central Jakarta police chief Susatyo Purnomo Condro told reporters.

Condro said the fire broke out on the first floor around noon and then spread to the upper floors.

The building houses the office of Terra Drone Indonesia, a unit of Japanese firm Terra Drone Corporation, which provides drones for aerial survey activities to customers in the mining and agricultural sectors.

Condro said some company employees were having lunch in the building at the time, while others were leaving the office.

Footage broadcast by Kompas TV shows dozens of firefighters trying to evacuate people and some carrying body bags from the building. Some employees were seen escaping from the upper floors using portable ladders.

“A police forensic laboratory team arrived to investigate the cause of the fire,” Condro said.

“Based on information gathered so far, ?batteries from a drone caught fire, but the cause of the fire, the point of origin is still being investigated,” he said, adding that ?police would ?question the business owner as ?well as the building owner.

In a statement, Terra Drone Co apologized for the stress and inconvenience caused to the local community and customers and added that it was investigating the impact of the fire on its business.

The fire occurred nearly two weeks after a massive fire broke out at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong on November 26. The death toll now stands at 160, officials said Tuesday.