SHANGHAI -- Four female college students jumped to their deaths from a dormitory at a Shanghai business school on Friday morning, as they sought to escape a fire in their room, police said.
The students apparently panicked amid flames and thick smoke, a spokesman with the municipal public security bureau said. All were confirmed dead on the scene.
Two of the students were natives of Shanghai, while the others were from the neighboring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
The fire, which broke out in Room 602 of the dormitory at the Shanghai Business School at 6:12 a.m., caused no further casualties, the spokesman said.
The fire had already been extinguished when Xinhua reporters arrived at 9:30 a.m. By then, police had cordoned off the school's main entrance and no visitors were allowed to enter.
Police said the fire burned about 20 square meters of the female dorm but didn't spread to other rooms.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The school, located on West Zhongshan Road in downtown Shanghai, has more than 10,000 students.
