Beijing table tennis venue catches fire

The table tennis venue for the 2008 Summer Olympics caught fire Monday morning, a fire department official said.

State-run Xinhua News Agency said the fire department was "investigating the cause of the blaze, initially thought to be triggered by improper practices in the construction process." It said there were no casualties.

Xinhua said the fire at the Peking University gymnasium, which is under construction, burned for about 45 minutes.

A fire department official and a university official, who refused to give their names, said it burned for at least three hours. No reason was given for the discrepancy.

The 290,000-square-foot gymnasium was scheduled to be completed next month and was to host an Olympic test event in the middle of December.

Xinhua said construction on the gymnasium, one of 11 venues being built for the Games, started in September 2005.