7 killed in Japan hotel blaze

Seven people died after a fire swept through a Japanese hotel on Sunday morning, the local police and fire department said. "Seven people including three men and four women are dead," media reports quoted a local police officer as saying. The seven were among 10 people taken to hospital after the fire, a fire department official said. The blaze took place at a hotel in Fukuyama, 600 kilometres (373 miles) west of Tokyo, in Hiroshima prefecture, he added. The cause of the fire, now under control, was not known immediately, police said.