The blaze engulfed a shop on the ground floor of the building in the city of Chengdu, according to state news agency Xinhua.

State broadcaster CCTV published blurry photos of a small group of people gazing at orange flames at the entrance to a hotel.

Firefighters received an alert at 11:02 am and had extinguished the blaze by 11:15 am, Xinhua said.

It added that over 20 people were taken to hospital "but are not in any critical condition".

CCTV said in an earlier report that one of its journalists had seen people taken away with "serious injuries".

The cause of the incident is under investigation, the two outlets said.

Fires occur relatively frequently in China due to slipshod construction and lax enforcement of building codes.

A fire in a shopping centre in the southwestern city of Zigong killed 16 people in July, according to state media.

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, is one of the country's wealthiest and most cosmopolitan cities.