Suspected restaurant gas blast kills 2 in Hebei city; 26 hurt
A HUGE suspected gas explosion at a restaurant in northern China killed two people and injured 26 more yesterday, state media reported, causing severe damage to buildings.
The blast occurred just before 8am, state broadcaster CCTV said, in a residential area in the city of Sanhe, Hebei Province.
Footage circulated online showed a huge explosion that sent plumes of smoke and fire across a busy road.
CCTV reported yesterday afternoon that two people had since died, 26 were injured and the fire had been extinguished.
The explosion was suspected to have been caused by a gas leak at a fried chicken shop, state media reported.
Two large buildings were completely destroyed in the blast, footage showed, with rescue teams seen hauling away a car hit by the explosion.
Rescue workers can also be seen carrying away a large gas canister.
Residents told reporters they had heard a loud explosion before rushing outside to see a plume of smoke rising into the morning air.
“I heard a great big bang... which scared me stiff,” a seller at a local market said. “Outside, I saw clouds of black smoke.”
Another seller said they also heard a “huge bang” from the blast site, in a bustling area of squat apartment blocks about six or seven floors high.
A local man said he did not see the explosion, but when he reached the scene, there was still thick smoke.
Near the scene of the blast, police waved oncoming traffic away from an entrance to the neighborhood where the explosion occurred.
From a police cordon of the blast zone, scribes could see a tower of gray smoke a few hundred meters away.
The blast blew out shop facades, footage shared on Douyin showed. The uploader said the explosion took place 200 meters from her home.
Another social media video showed what appeared to be a building that had completely collapsed as well as several destroyed cars and debris strewn across the street.
The local Langfang fire department said 36 emergency vehicles and 154 staff were dispatched to the scene.
A merchant working at a nearby store told Jimu News she had been in her shop when she heard a bang.
She ran out of her store and saw a fire, she said, adding that the whole building had been “virtually destroyed.”
In a bid to prevent further accidents, a local company temporarily halted the provision of gas to 50 residential compounds and businesses in the area, China National Radio said.
(AFP)