Restaurant blast causes huge damage
Sanhe – 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, less than 50km east of the centre of Beijing.
Footage online circulated by state media showed a huge explosion that sent plumes of smoke and fire across a busy road.
CCTV reported at 1.30pm that two people had since died and that 26 were injured. The fire has been extinguished, it added.
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 shared by the broadcaster showed, with rescue teams seen hauling away a car hit by the explosion.
Rescue workers could also be seen carrying away a large gas canister.
Residents told journalists 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,” he added.
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.
“The noise was too loud,” a vender surnamed Wang said, adding she had heard a “second explosion”.
“When I saw many people were running there, I took a video,” a local man said. –