Cooling tower platform falls in early hours, trapping dozens
AT least 67 people were killed when part of a power station under construction in China collapsed yesterday, the latest industrial accident in a country with a dismal safety record.
A cooling tower platform had plunged to the ground in the early hours, trapping an unknown number of people beneath it, the official Xinhua news agency said.
State broadcaster CCTV put the toll at 67, with reports saying one person was still missing.
Pictures of the scene in Fengcheng, in the central province of Jiangxi, showed a grey mass of concrete slabs, steel girders and twisted metal splayed in a heap on the ground inside a large round structure.
Rescue workers carried bodies from the site on stretchers wrapped in orange sheeting.
A total of 32 fire engines and 212 military personnel had been deployed to the scene, the Jiangxi provincial fire department said.
The construction of two 1 000megawatt, coal-fired power units at the Ganneng Fengcheng power station began in July and was expected to be completed by early 2018
The cost of the project was set at 7.67-billion yuan (R15.7-billion).
The main investor for a previous expansion project at the plant suspended trading in its shares on the Shenzhen stock exchange yesterday, stating that significant events that could not be disclosed could have an impact on its share price.
Its shares had fallen 3.41% by midday.
The State Administration of Work Safety dispatched a team to investigate the cause of the accident.
Many companies cut corners with workplace safety to reduce their costs and widespread corruption in China also allows firms to sidestep oversight.
The administration’s former chief, Yang Dongliang, has been accused of accepting more than 28-million yuan (R57.4-million) in bribes. His trial had started yesterday, Chinese media said.
Industrial accidents are common in China, where safety standards are often poorly enforced.
In August, a pipeline explosion at a coal-fired power plant in the neighbouring province of Hubei killed 21.
Earlier, more than 130 people were taken to hospital after chemicals leaked from a plant in eastern China.
In April, a chemical fire burnt for 16 hours in the coastal province of Jiangsu after an explosion at a facility storing chemicals and fuel, requiring 400 firefighters to quell the flames.
In December, the collapse of a gypsum mine in the eastern province of Shandong left one person dead and 13 others unaccounted for, with four miners rescued only after being trapped underground for 36 days.
The owner of the collapsed mine had committed suicide by drowning himself at the scene soon after the collapse, Xinhua said. – AFP