47 killed in China blast

AN explosion at a pesticide plant in eastern China has killed 47 people and injured more than 600, state media said, 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 by mid afternoon on Friday, state television said.

Survivors were taken to 16 hospitals with 640 people treated for injuries.

The fire, at a plant owned by the Tianjiayi Chemical Company, spread to neighbouring factories. Children at a kindergarten in the vicinity were reportedly also injured.

The cause of the explosion was under investigation, but the company had been cited and fined for past work safety violations, 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.

“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 him 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.

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.

In November, a series of blasts during the delivery of a flammable gas at a chemical manufacturer killed 23 people.