Firecrackers blamed for hotel fire near Beijing´s new CCTV headquarters, seven injured

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Witnesses said that the flame was about 80 meters at one time.

Snow-like ashes fell as far as 1 km from the building and smoke eclipsed the full moon.

The 241-room luxury facility, in the heart of the capital's Central Business District, was intended to be Mandarin Oriental's flagship property in China.

The first and second floors were used to make programs during the Beijing Olympic Games.

Chen said that they were expected to move in after October. Before the fire broke out, the interior was being decorated.

Liu Yunshan, head of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Publicity Department, Beijing's Party chief Liu Qi and Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong rushed to the scene.

The hotel was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, whose other work, the CCTV tower, was listed as one of the wonders of Chinese architecture by U.S.-based Business Week magazine and viewed as the most radical structure in the country.

The tower, with a floor space of 495,900 square meters, is composed of two segments, 234 meters and 194 meters high, respectively, which lean six degrees. They were joined in December2007.

The huge project, for which the foundation was laid in September 2004, finally won the central government's approval 18 months after it had been halted due to worries about over-heated property investment as well as traffic congestion fears.

Editor:Liu Anqi