Seventeen poor migrants died when a fire swept through an illegally constructed Beijing building yesterday, state media and officials said, in the latest accident to highlight lax Chinese fire safety.

Another 24 people were hurt in the fire, which broke out at about 1 a.m. (1700 GMT Sunday) in the four-storey building in the capital’s southern Daxing district, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

It was put out by firefighters about an hour later.

The building in Jiugong town was illegally built by a local resident who leased out its ground floor to a couple who ran a garment-processing business, Xinhua said.

The fire is believed to have started in the garment workshop, which also lacked the proper business registrations, it said.

The victims were all migrant workers living in the building and most of them died from smoke inhalation.

Deadly fires are common in China and are typically blamed on lax observation and enforcement of fire-safety measures.