[WATCH] China: factory explosion south of Shangai destroys city

Agt least two were killed and 30 others injured when a factory explosion shook a port city south of Shanghai

(Photo: The New Daily)
(Photo: The New Daily)

 

A factory explosion in a port city south of Shanghai on Sunday killed at least two and injured more than 30 as buildings collapsed and streets were left littered with damaged cars and debris, according to local news reports.

The explosion struck a factory in a riverfront neighborhood in Ningbo, one of China’s busiest ports, said the official Xinhua News Agency.

A police statement said that the cause of the blast, which occurred at 8:55am was under investigation.

Images showed cars mangled by the force of the explosion, a plume of grey smoke and debris scattered for metres around the site.

Footage showed rescuers wearing helmets carrying injured people away from the area.

According to CCTV, eyewitnesses said that there was a “large number of injured people”.

At least 30 were taken to the local hospital and rescue efforts were on-going, said the report.

The Communist Party’s People’s Daily said on Twitter that no one actually lived at the site of the explosion, but garbage collectors may have been working there.

An inquiry has been launched, to determine the cause of the explosion, said the local police in the Jiangbei district, on social media.

Industrial accidents are common in China.

In 2015, explosions killed at least 165 people in the northern port city of Tianjin, causing over $1 billion in damage and prompting widespread anger, over a perceived lack of transparency by officials about the accident’s causes and impact.

A government inquiry into the Tianjin accident released in February 2013, recommended that 123 people be punished.

The official, who was mayor at the time of the accident, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for graft, in September.