Two people died when an apartment building in central China's Hunan Province caught fire early Tuesday, the local fire department said.

Fire broke out at a five-story apartment building in Hongxing Village of Yuhua District in the provincial capital Changsha around daybreak, said a spokesman for the city's fire department.

The department sent a rescue team and six fire engines to the site. Nine people were rescued from the building, but two of them died later in hospital.

The other seven are still in hospital.

Police have launched an investigation. The identities of the victims are not yet known.