Taiwan high-rise fire kills three

Taiwan rescue helicopters plucked nine people to safety from a revolving restaurant on top of a blazing building on Saturday after fire and thick smoke killed three people in the 23-story block.

Television footage showed police pulling the nine one-by-one from the roof of the restaurant as flames and smoke poured from the upper floors of the building in Taichung City in central Taiwan.

The fire department received a call about the blaze in the city center building at 4:18 p.m. local time (3:18 a.m. ET), Lin Te-chang said by phone, adding that the fire had been extinguished in about an hour and a half.

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Other people in the building, which includes shops, restaurants and after-hour schools, were evacuated by foot after the fire broke out, Lin said.

Three people were slightly hurt, suffering cuts and abrasions, Lin said.

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Officials believe the fire started in a restaurant on the 18th floor, where two of the dead were found, but the cause of the blaze was still unknown, Lin said.

One of the dead was identified as a building security guard and another as a building management official. The third had not yet been identified, Lin said.