Blast rocks Chinese megaport city, 2 dead

SHANGHAI: A major explosion hit China’s megaport city of Ningbo on Sunday, killing at least two people, injuring dozens and wrecking buildings, state media and local authorities said.

The Ningbo government said Industrial accidents are comon a social media account that the mon in China, where safety stanblast occurred in a “vacant lot” but dards are often lax. it did not provide details about Television images showed what may have caused it. cars twisted and mangled by the

Local authorities said two peoforce of the explosion, a plume ple died, two were seriously inof grey smoke rising in the sky, and debris scattered for dozens of were being treated for injuries in meters (yards) around the site of the major port city. the incident.

State media said more than Aerial images posted by the 30 people were hospitalised, People’s Daily on Twitter showed at with the Xinhua news agency least four wrecked buildings around reporting that the explosion a wasteland of concrete debris. had taken place in a demolished Footage showed rescuers wearfactory at around 9: 00 a. m. ing helmets carrying injured peo( 0100 GMT). ple away from the area, while others stood over a person lying on the ground.

Pieces of concrete, wood and glass were strewn across a large area. Metal gates were twisted open and windows blown out of buildings.

According to CCTV, eyewitnesses said there were “a large number of injured people” in the city, one of China’s largest ports, which sits just south of Shanghai.

The Communist Party’s People’s Daily said on Twitter that no one lived at site of the explosion but garbage collectors might have been working there.

An enquiry has been launched to determine the cause of the explosion, the local police in Jiangbei district, where the blast happened, said on social media.

Ningbo is one of the country’s major international container shipping ports.

Past disasters

China has been rocked by several industrial accidents in recent years.

In 2015, giant blasts killed at least 165 people in the northern port city of Tianjin, causing over $1 billion in damage and sparking widespread anger over a perceived lack of transpar causes and its environmental impact.

A government enquiry into the Tianjin accident released in February 2016 recommended 123 people be punished.

the time of the accident was sentenced to 12 years in prison for graft in September.

Huang Xingguo, 62, had also headed the disaster response committee.