At least 25 people have died after a fire broke out on a foreign-flagged cargo ship docked in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao.

The vessel, a bulk carrier with 42 people on board, caught fire at around 11.15am on Thursday morning, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Emergency services managed to safely rescue 17 people from the ship. Five of those survivors were rushed to hospital, where they remain in a stable condition.

Firefighters tackled the blaze for more than three hours before successfully bringing it under control and extinguishing it by 2.30pm. Online videos from the scene showed dense smoke billowing from the vessel and spreading across neighbouring ships as fire engines gathered near the dock.

One witness noted that while the smoke was heavy, there were few immediate clues as to what happened inside. "I saw the smoke from the ship by chance, but there was no visible fire," they said. "I didn't hear an explosion or smell anything."

Tracking data from the website VesselFinder identified the vessel as the Ocean Melody, a bulk carrier sailing under a Liberian flag. The ship had arrived at the port on 31 August and was undergoing repair work at the Beihai Shipbuilding Company when the fire started.

Beihai Shipbuilding is a subsidiary of the state-controlled China State Shipbuilding Corporation, recognized as the world's largest shipbuilding group, with core operations centred on building and repairing commercial vessels.

The scale of the incident prompted direct intervention from Beijing. China's President Xi Jinping issued "important instructions" to urgently carry out rescues for anyone missing, according to the state news agency Xinhua. Premier Li Qiang similarly called for all "trapped" individuals to be reached.

Xi also instructed authorities to ensure "preventive measures are thoroughly implemented" and demanded that officials "resolutely prevent major and catastrophic accidents" at industrial sites.

What we don't know yet is what triggered the fire. Authorities have not released any official information regarding where on the vessel the fire started or what materials were involved.

The incident follows several high-profile industrial accidents across China over the past year. In August, a shipyard explosion and fire in eastern Fujian province killed one rescue worker and injured 12 others. That followed a fireworks factory explosion in central China that killed 37 people in May, a shoe factory blaze in Fujian that claimed 28 lives in July, and a November high-rise fire in Hong Kong that killed 168 people.

With the fire now extinguished and the surviving crew receiving medical care, local and national authorities are expected to turn their focus toward investigating safety standards at the shipyard. I'll be following this one — check back for updates.