A fire caused by a blast of natural gas at a shopping mall in the busiest commercial street in Luzhou, Sichuan province, on Thursday night, killed four and injured 40 people as of press time on Friday.

The dead included three men aged 22, 45 and 55, and a 25-year-old woman. One of the men was a security guard at the shopping mall. The woman had been watching a movie and died after inhaling toxic gas in the aftermath of the fire.

Xiao Zhe, another moviegoer, said many in the theater thought the sound of the blast came from a 3-D film and did not get up to leave.