TOKYO, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed and two others have yet to be accounted for following a blaze which tore through a building in Akita Prefecture in northern Japan in the early hours of Tuesday morning, local firefighters and police said.
The fire broke out in an apartment building housing 25 residents in the city of Yokote at around 1 a.m. local time, they said.
Firefighters contacted 20 people following the blaze starting, of which 10 of the residents aged in their 40s and 60s were injured, they said.
Local firefighters and police found the bodies of two people at the site of the blaze and a man was pronounced dead after being rushed to hospital, local authorities said.
Such was the intensity of the blaze that the entire apartment building was gutted and essentially burnt to the ground and three nearby buildings were also burned down as a result of the fire.
The fires were brought under control by firefighters after about five hours after the apartment building, located about one km southeast of JR Yokote Station, went up in flames, firefighters said.
