Missing 17 in Dehui fire found alive

All 17 people that were declared missing during the fatal fire on Monday that engulfed a slaughterhouse at Dehui city in Northeastern China's Jilin province and claimed 120 lives and 77 injuries were found alive and reconnected with families, according to sources from the local government news conference.

"We attached great importance to the search for those missing. We motivated several hundreds of people and interviewed many workers and people who were familiar with them," said Zhao Xian, spokesman of the Changchun government that administrates Dehui.

"These included people that either worked in the workshop or the office. During our search, some returned to homes in other cities, so we also had to check with public security departments in several other places," Zhao said.

?The conference also stated that 21 of the 77 injured have returned home from the hospital with the remaining 56 still receiving treatment. Among the 15 severely injured, one remains in critical condition, while the rest are now in stable condition.

According to Tang Qinghua, spokesman of the Changchun Public Security Bureau, of 120 victims, 111 of them have already been identified.