Cargo Ship Fire in Eastern China Kills 25

Cargo Ship Fire in Eastern China Kills 25 - The New York Times

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Cargo Ship Fire in Eastern China Kills 25

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/world/asia/china-cargo-ship-fire-qingdao.html

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Cargo Ship Fire in Eastern China Kills 25

The ship was docked in the port city of Qingdao for repairs at the time of the blaze, whose cause remained unclear, according to state media.

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!A ship docked in a ship yard.

*In this photograph, released by Chinese state media, fire trucks were parked near a cargo ship after it caught fire while docked in Qingdao, China, on Thursday.

Credit...

Li Aoqiu/Xinhua, via Associated Press*

By

Berry Wang and Ali Watkins

Berry Wang reported from Hong Kong.

Sept. 10, 2026, 9:16 a.m. ET

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Twenty-five people were killed on Thursday after a fire broke out on a cargo ship that was docked in Qingdao, China, state media outlets reported.

The fire broke out at around 11:15 a.m. local time on a foreign-flagged ship that was undergoing maintenance, according to CCTV, China’s state broadcaster. The vessel was docked in a shipyard owned by Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of a state-owned conglomerate.

Qingdao, in Shandong Province in eastern China, is a high-volume trade hub that has one of the busiest ports in the world and is also home to one of the country’s most strategically important naval bases.

The ship had 42 people onboard at the time of the blaze, which was extinguished several hours later and whose cause remained unclear. Twelve people were safely evacuated and five injured people were taken to hospital where they were in a stable condition, according to state media.

The fire prompted a large-scale emergency response at the shipyard. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has called for a prompt investigation into its cause.

Chinese state media identified the vessel as the Ocean Melody. According to Marine Traffic, a ship tracking platform, a Liberian-flagged vessel with the same name had been docked in Qingdao for at least 10 days.

Berry Wang is a reporter and researcher for The Times in Hong Kong.

Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in Belfast.

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