Thirteen pupils have died after a fire broke out in dormitories at a primary school in central Henan province, Chinese state media have reported. A teacher at the school told the state-run Hebei Daily that all the victims were from the same third-grade class of nine- and 10-year-olds. One person rescued from the scene was being treated in hospital, China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, said. The fire in the rural Fangcheng district started on Friday night and was put out just before midnight. The boarding school’s owner was detained, CCTV said. The area around the school was cordoned off on Saturday evening, with more than a dozen police officers patrolling the scene, Agence-France Presse reported. A supermarket owner said she was asleep when the blaze took hold, but had heard about the tragedy. “The kids at the school are definitely mostly living around this area,” she said, adding: “Our kids don’t go there, so we’re not sure about the details.” Other shopkeepers in the area said they too had gone to bed by the time the fire broke out. The school gives students, many of whom are from rural areas, a break every two weeks but this was not a break weekend, the paper said, citing several people. The school, in the town of Dushu, caters primarily to students in the elementary grades, though it has an attached kindergarten, according to the school’s WeChat page. Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China. In November, 26 people died and dozens were sent to hospital after a fire at a coal company office in northern China’s Shanxi province. Last July, 11 people died after the roof of a school gym collapsed in the north-east. The month before, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the north-west killed 31 people. Last April, a hospital fire in Beijing killed 29 people and forced desperate survivors to jump out of windows to escape.