China factory blast death toll hits 64
Man rescued after 40 hours
BEIJING (AFP) — The death toll in a chemical plant explosion in China rose to 64 yesterday, but rescuers found a survivor among more than two dozen still missing in the debris of one of the country’s worst industrial accidents in recent years.
The explosion in the eastern city of Yancheng on Thursday injured hundreds and flattened an industrial park.
The local fire brigade pulled a man in his 40s from the rubble of the destroyed chemical plant around dawn yesterday, according to a statement on the city government’s official Weibo account.
The survivor was taken to a hospital for treatment, the statement said without giving further detail of his status or injuries.
Rescuers are looking for 28 people who are still missing, Yancheng Mayor Cao Lubao said in the statement.
“The identities of the dead and the missing are being confirmed through interviews with family members, home visits and DNA tests,” Cao said.
More than 600 people have received medical treatment following the blast, according to the city government.
Among them, 21 are critically injured and 73 are seriously injured, the statement said.
The explosion toppled several buildings in the industrial park and caused a huge fire that raged through the night, while rescuers scrambled to find survivors in the plant’s wreckage.
Hundreds of rescuers were dispatched to the scene, local authorities said, and some 4,000 people have been evacuated from the blast site.
The force of the explosion – which was so powerful that it apparently triggered a small earthquake – blew out windows and dented metal garage doors of buildings as far as four kilometers from the site.
Nearby residents – many of them elderly – were seen sweeping up glass, and in some cases, appeared to have abandoned their homes entirely.
The city government said some 89 houses were damaged beyond repair and families were resettled after demolishing those structures.
The government added that it was also repairing blown-in doors and windows in 10 school buildings near the site so that all schools in the area can resume classes on Monday.
Local authorities investigating the cause of the accident said an unspecified number of people were taken into police custody on Friday.
The facility involved in the explosion belonged to Tianjiayi Chemical, a firm with 195 employees established in 2007 that mainly produces raw chemical materials including anisole, a highly flammable compound.