Fiji Sun

637 billionair­es

- Jakarta: Xinhua

Recorded in Asia from 2015 to 2016. This includes 318 Chinese and 101 Indians, compared to 563 billionair­es in the United States of America

The number of casualties in a fireworks factory fire in Tanggerang city near the Indonesian capital rose to 47 and 46 others were also injured, an official said.

The cause of the incident in the factory is an explosion in a pickup minivan loaded with raw materials for fireworks, Denny Hassan, a senior official of the disaster management agency in the city, told Xinhua by phone from the scene.

“The casualties of the fireworks factory fire reach 47 people now,” he said.

Hassan said the figure has been confirmed by the police and a medical institutio­n in the city.

“The condition of the corpses was fully burned. Now we are searching for and combing the scene to see whether there are any other casualties,” Doni Pratama, a rescuer from the Jakarta search and rescue office, told Xinhua by phone from the scene.

Pratama and several other rescuers from Jakarta have been deployed to the scene to give assistance to the local firefighte­rs and rescuers.

The fire started at 08:30 a.m. local time and now has been terminated, said Hanafi, a fire fighter.

The wounded have been treated at nearby hospitals in Tanggerang city and a police hospital in Jakarta, according to Hanafi.

 ?? Photo: Xinhua/Zulkarnain ?? An aerial view of the site of the explosion in a fireworks factory in Tangerang, Banten Province, Indonesia.
Photo: Xinhua/Zulkarnain An aerial view of the site of the explosion in a fireworks factory in Tangerang, Banten Province, Indonesia.

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