12 die in market gas explosion
AT LEAST 12 people were killed and nearly 140 others injured when a gas line exploded in a residential compound in central China’s Hubei province yesterday, local officials said.
Rescue workers are uncertain how many people may still be trapped under the debris, according to a statement from the disaster management bureau in the city of Shiyan.
Videos shot by witnesses and verified by Beijing News showed several buildings reduced to rubble and rescuers carrying away shocked survivors.
The blast ripped through a vegetable market that was filled with shoppers and people eating breakfast, an eyewitness told state-run Global Times.
“I heard a loud bang and immediately ducked under the table, thinking it was an earthquake,” a man who owns a small restaurant near the explosion site told the newspaper.
State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of buildings with charred walls and shattered windows. Rescuers were seen lifting large slabs to pull out those trapped underneath.
The blast occurred in a two-storey building that earlier housed a vehicle frame manufacturer. Several survivors
told local media that the gas pipeline had fallen into disrepair after the factory was moved last year.
The explosion took place at about 6:30am and an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the blast, a statement said.
About 900 residents in the area have been evacuated as surrounding buildings may have been damaged by the blast, the city government said.
About 2 000 rescue workers have been deployed on the site.
Images verified by Health Times show a firefighter who was also injured and a fire truck damaged by a second, smaller blast. The severely injured were airlifted to bigger hospitals.
Long lines of volunteers were seen
outside blood banks as local hospitals put out a call for donors.
The Ministry of Emergency Management has also sent a team to assist with the rescue operation.
In a rare move, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged local officials to “learn profound lessons from the incident” and double down on efforts to prevent such incidents.
The blast comes a day after eight people were killed and three others injured when toxic methyl formate leaked from a chemical handling facility in the south-western city of Guiyang. A massive 2015 blast at a chemical warehouse in Tianjin killed 173 people in one of the worse accidents in China in recent years.