The blaze erupted in Liaoyang City, about 580 kilometres (360 miles) northeast of the capital Beijing.

"At 12:25 pm (0425 GMT) on April 29, a fire broke out at a restaurant," CCTV said.

"As of 2:00 pm, the incident has resulted in 22 deaths and three injuries," it added.

President Xi Jinping said that the blaze had caused "significant casualties" and that the lessons from it were "profoundly serious", CCTV said.

Xi called for "every effort to treat the injured, properly handle the aftermath for the deceased and provide support to their families, swiftly determine the cause of the fire, and pursue accountability in accordance with the law," the report added.

Footage shared online and verified by AFP showed fierce flames engulfing a two-storey restaurant and thick black smoke billowing skyward.

Other authenticated videos published on Douyin, China's version of TikTok, showed paramedics wheeling one victim on a stretcher into an ambulance and several firefighters battling the flames with hoses.

Deadly fires are relatively common in China due to lax building codes and an often slipshod approach to workplace safety.

This month, 20 people died in a fire at a nursing home in northern China's Hebei province.

And in January, a fire at a vegetable market in Zhangjiakou city, northwest of Beijing, killed eight people and injured 15.

A month before that, nine people died in a fire at a construction site in eastern China's Rongcheng city.