Video captures China residents clinging to ledge as fire rages in high-rise apartment building

Residents of a high-rise apartment building in Xi’an, China were forced to hang out of their window sills and off of ledges to escape a raging structure fire.

The footage, posted to Chinese social media site Weibo, shows the towering Weiyang area apartment building engulfed in flames as firefighters combat the blaze.

PROTESTS RATTLE CHINA AS PEOPLE SAY ENOUGH TO COUNTRY’S DRACONIAN COVID LOCKDOWN POLICIES

China is currently experiencing unprecedented political unrest after a deadly fire in a high-rise building in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, that cost 10 people their lives. The building had been in partial lockdown for nearly two months, leading activists to speculate that the COVID regulations hindered residents’ ability to escape.

CHINA DEPLOYS RIOT POLICE IN HAZMAT SUITS TO CRACK DOWN ON COVID PROTESTS

Over the weekend, things turned violent in several cities with protesters clashing with police. Videos posted online showed police attacking and carrying away some protesters. People have increasingly voiced their anger online. 

On Saturday and into Sunday, people gathered in the city center of Shanghai to light candles for the victims of the deadly fire. Around midnight, the crowd had swelled to over a thousand people, chanting, “apologize,” “Xi Jinping, step down,” and “Communist Party, step down,” which were all directed at the central government,