Shanghai - An explosion at a pesticide
plant in eastern China has killed 47 people and injured more
than 600, state media said on Friday, the latest casualties in a
series of industrial accidents that has angered the public.
The blast occurred on Thursday at the Chenjiagang Industrial
Park in the city of Yancheng, in Jiangsu province, and the fire
was finally brought under control at 3.00 a.m. on Friday (1900
GMT), state television said.
Survivors were taken to 16 hospitals with 640 people being
treated for injuries. Thirty-two of them were critically
injured, it said.
The fire at a plant owned by the Tianjiayi Chemical Company
spread to neighbouring factories. Children at a kindergarten in
the vicinity were also injured in the blast, media reported.
The cause of the explosion was under investigation, but the
company - which produces more than 30 organic chemical
compounds, some of which are highly flammable - has been cited
and fined for work safety violations in the past, the China
Daily said.
President Xi Jinping, who is in Italy on a state visit,
ordered all-out efforts to care for the injured and to
"earnestly maintain social stability", state television said.
Authorities must step up action to prevent such incidents
from happening and find out the cause of the blast as quickly as
possible, Xi added.
"There have recently been a series of major accidents, and
all places and relevant departments must fully learn the lessons
from these," the report cited Xi as saying.
The Jiangsu environmental protection bureau said in a late
Thursday statement the environmental monitoring station in the
area had found no abnormal concentrations of toluene, xylene or
benzene.
Concentrations of acetone and chloroform outside the
perimeter of the explosion zone were also within normal limits,
it added.
Jiangsu will launch inspections on chemical producers and
warehouses, according to an emergency notice published by
official media on Friday.
The notice, published on the news website of Jiangsu
province's Communist Party, said the government would shut down
any chemical firms found not complying with regulations on
dangerous chemicals.
Public anger over safety standards has grown in China over
industrial accidents ranging from mining disasters to factory
fires that have marred three decades of swift economic growth.
In 2015, 165 people were killed in a series of explosions at
a chemical warehouse in the northern city of Tianjin.
The explosions at Tianjin, one of the world's busiest ports
and not far from the capital, Beijing, were big enough to be
seen by satellites and register on earthquake sensors.
Despite repeated pledges by the government to tighten
safety, chemical plants in particular have been plagued by
disasters.
In November, a series of blasts during the delivery of a
flammable gas at a chemical manufacturer killed 23 people.