Inn fire in Hefei kills 3 students

Three university students were killed, and another two injured, after a fire ripped through a small hotel early Tuesday morning in east China's Anhui Province, police said.

The fire broke out in a barbershop on the ground floor of a building in Feixi Road in the provincial capital of Hefei, around 3:30 a.m..

Fire spread to the Chenguang Inn located on the second floor, according to a police officer with the city's public security bureau.

There were seven lodgers, all university students, in the inn when the fire broke out, with four of them managing to escape. Two of them sustained respiratory organ injuries, the police officer said.

The fire was extinguished after 20 minutes. An investigation is under way.