10 killed, 19 injured in China gas plant explosion

At least 10 people were killed and 19 others injured in an explosion at a gas plant workshop in China's Yima city on Friday, local media reported on Saturday. It is to be noted that Yima is part of Sanmenxia city.

According to the local officials, the unfortunate incident happened at around 6 pm on Friday and the injured were sent to the hospital. In the meantime, the local government said that the explosion did not involve tanks of dangerous materials.

"The sound was extremely loud with a ball of fire and clouds of smoke in the air," a local resident, who was 500 meters away from the gas plant when the explosion occurred, was quoted as saying by the Beijing News. "Customers who bought goods outside were hurt by broken glass," he added.

Investigation into the cause of the accident is underway, state-run China Daily reported.

The factory was named as the first provincial-level enterprise to put in place a double prevention system for safety production risks in Henan this month. The Yima gas plant of Henan Gas Co Ltd was established in 1997, covering an area of 87 hectares, with more than 1,200 employees. It is listed as a key monitoring enterprise by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Back in March 2019, more than 60 people died in a chemical plant explosion in eastern Jiangsu province. Among the worst accidents was a massive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city of Tianjin that killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers. That blast was blamed on illegal construction and unsafe storage of volatile materials.

(With inputs from PTI)

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