Beijing: At least 10 people were killed and more than 150 wounded when a blast tore apart a neighborhood in a small town in northwestern China on Monday, battering nearby homes, shattering windows and sending residents streaming from the smoking ruins.
The explosion occurred in the afternoon in a town in Fugu County, Shaanxi Province, and by late in the night rescuers had counted 157 wounded, including 113 who remained hospitalized, as well as the dead, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported. Eleven of the wounded were in intensive care, and rescuers continued searching for anyone buried under wreckage. Six people were pulled out of the debris earlier, said Huashan News, a Shaanxi website.
Investigators said they were still assessing what caused the explosion in Xinmin Town. But there was no suggestion that they suspected it was deliberate.
It appeared more likely that the blast was another example of a widespread problem in China: dangerous chemicals and substances stored haphazardly and too close to homes. Residents said they suspected that the explosion involved mine explosives illegally stored in a makeshift hut near homes and a hospital, Huashan News said.
Yang Huanning, the director of China’s State Administration of Work Safety, ordered officials to “undertake a specialized inspection of the management, use and storage of explosives and explosive substances” in the area of the blast and other parts of Shaanxi, said the China News Service, a government-run news agency.
Pictures from the town showed rescuers clawing through the debris and buildings that had been pummeled by the explosion, including a small hospital whose windows had been blown out. The force of the blast gouged a hole many feet deep in the ground, and a nearby concrete-slab building was half collapsed. The windows of a kindergarten were also shattered.
But Chinese news websites did not dwell on the disaster, and by evening the coverage was moved from prominent parts of sites. On Monday, the Communist Party Central Committee, a council of about 370 senior officials, started a four-day meeting. And at such politically delicate times, the propaganda authorities particularly discourage attention on bad news.
The Chinese government has become increasingly strict about enforcing safety rules, and deaths and injuries from industrial accidents have been falling.
But deadly accidents and rickety enforcement are still widespread. In August 2015, explosions at a chemical storage facility in Tianjin, a northern port city, killed more than 170 people.
The explosion occurred in the afternoon in a town in Fugu County, Shaanxi Province, and by late in the night rescuers had counted 157 wounded, including 113 who remained hospitalized, as well as the dead, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported. Eleven of the wounded were in intensive care, and rescuers continued searching for anyone buried under wreckage. Six people were pulled out of the debris earlier, said Huashan News, a Shaanxi website.
Investigators said they were still assessing what caused the explosion in Xinmin Town. But there was no suggestion that they suspected it was deliberate.
It appeared more likely that the blast was another example of a widespread problem in China: dangerous chemicals and substances stored haphazardly and too close to homes. Residents said they suspected that the explosion involved mine explosives illegally stored in a makeshift hut near homes and a hospital, Huashan News said.
Yang Huanning, the director of China’s State Administration of Work Safety, ordered officials to “undertake a specialized inspection of the management, use and storage of explosives and explosive substances” in the area of the blast and other parts of Shaanxi, said the China News Service, a government-run news agency.
Pictures from the town showed rescuers clawing through the debris and buildings that had been pummeled by the explosion, including a small hospital whose windows had been blown out. The force of the blast gouged a hole many feet deep in the ground, and a nearby concrete-slab building was half collapsed. The windows of a kindergarten were also shattered.
But Chinese news websites did not dwell on the disaster, and by evening the coverage was moved from prominent parts of sites. On Monday, the Communist Party Central Committee, a council of about 370 senior officials, started a four-day meeting. And at such politically delicate times, the propaganda authorities particularly discourage attention on bad news.
The Chinese government has become increasingly strict about enforcing safety rules, and deaths and injuries from industrial accidents have been falling.
But deadly accidents and rickety enforcement are still widespread. In August 2015, explosions at a chemical storage facility in Tianjin, a northern port city, killed more than 170 people.