Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption It took firefighters hours to bring the blaze at the plant under control

The death toll in a huge blast at a chemical plant in eastern China has jumped to 47, with 90 badly injured, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Many neighbouring factories inside the industrial park caught fire after the explosion.

China's earthquake administration reported a tremor equivalent to 2.2-magnitude at the time of the blast.

The death toll makes it one of the country's worst industrial accidents in recent years.

The blast happened at about 14:50 local time (06:50 GMT) on Thursday at a plant in Yancheng, run by Tianjiayi Chemical.

According to Xinhua, a total of 640 people were sent to hospital. Many were in critical condition and dozens had severe injuries, the agency reports.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The scale of the destruction is clear

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Hundreds were injured in the explosion, which was reportedly started by a fire at the plant

Images of the site showed a fireball exploding, billowing clouds enveloping the area, injured people, and damage to buildings.

The blast was so powerful that it knocked down factory buildings some distance away, trapping workers, according to local media.

Staff at the Henglida Chemical Factory, 3km (1.8 miles) from the explosion, said its roof collapsed as they fled, and windows and doors were blown out.

Provincial authorities said firefighters had to be brought in from across the province.

The fire was brought under control at around 03:00 local time on Friday, state TV said.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The cause of the accident is under investigation

One woman, who gave her surname as Xiang, said she had been concerned about safety and pollution levels at the plant for some time.

"We knew we'd be blown up one day," said told AFP.

Reuters quoted local officials as saying there had been no abnormalities detected at the site before the blast, but that the province would be conducting emergency inspections of other chemical producers and warehouses.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The blast blew out windows of buildings across a wide area

Industrial accidents ranging from factory fires to mining disasters are common in China, often due to poorly enforced safety standards.

The biggest accident in recent years was the August 2015 Tianjin explosion, which killed more than 160 people and injured nearly 1,000.

The exact cause of Thursday's explosion is still under investigation. Tianjiayi Chemical, founded in 2007, has received six government penalties in the past over waste management and air pollution, according to the South China Morning Post.

President Xi Jinping has called for an "all-out effort" to aid the injured and said authorities must learn lessons from the blast prevent future accidents.</s>BEIJING -- A massive explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China with a long record of safety violations has killed at least 62 people and injured hundreds of others, 90 of them seriously.

The death toll appeared likely to rise still further, with another 28 people still listed as missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday. Just 26 of those confirmed dead in Thursday's explosion have been identified, it said.

The blast in an industrial park in the city of Yancheng, north of Shanghai, was one of China's worst industrial accidents in recent years. State-run television showed crushed cars, blown-out windows and workers leaving the factory with bloodied heads.

Schools were closed and nearly 1,000 residents were moved to safety as a precaution against leaks and additional explosions, the city government said in a statement posted to its microblog.

The blast created a crater, and more than 900 firefighters were deployed to extinguish the fire that burned into the night. Windows in buildings as far as 6 kilometres (4 miles) away were blown out by the force of the blast, which caused a magnitude 2.2 seismic shock.

The cause of the blast was under investigation, and people responsible for operations at the plant have been placed "under control," Xinhua said. It wasn't clear whether anyone had been formally arrested.

Drains and waterways running through and from the plant complex have been blocked to prevent toxic chemicals from running into the nearby Yellow Sea, under orders from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The orders covered sewage and rainwater outlets while further assessments of air and water quality were ongoing, Xinhua reported.

A resident of the community of Chenjiagang, about 5 kilometres (about 3 miles) from the plant, said glass from windows smashed by the force of the blast injured neighbours.

"At the time of the explosion, I was almost deafened and I was terribly frightened," said the woman, who gave only her surname, Zhi.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a state visit to Italy, demanded "all-out efforts" to find and rescue victims, Xinhua reported.

"Relief work must be well done to maintain social stability. Meanwhile, environmental monitoring and early warning should be strengthened to prevent environmental pollution as well as secondary disasters," it quoted Xi as saying.

Xi said local officials need to learn the lessons of a recent series of industrial accidents to save lives and property, signalling a likely crackdown on safety violations at a time when many Chinese companies are being hit by a downturn in sales that is squeezing profit margins.

On Xi's orders, State Councilor Wang Yong led officials from the State Council, China's Cabinet officials to the explosion site to "guide the rescue and emergency response work and visit the injured people," Xinhua said. The State Council has been ordered to oversee the investigation into the cause of the explosion, an indication of the seriousness with which the government regards the incident.

The Yancheng city government statement said 3,500 medical workers at 16 hospitals were mobilized to treat the injured, dozens of whom remained in critical condition.

The U.N. said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "deeply saddened" at the loss of life and injuries and sent "heartfelt sympathies" to the families of the victims and to the people and government of China.

China experiences frequent industrial accidents despite orders from the central government to improve safety at factories, power plants and mines.

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.

In November, at least 22 people were killed and scores of vehicles destroyed in an explosion outside a chemical plant in the northeastern city of Zhangjiakou, which will host competitions in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Thursday's disaster occurred at a factory run by the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Co. Located among a cluster of chemical factories in Yancheng, it has a dismal safety record: In February 2018, China's State Administration for Work Safety cited 13 types of safety hazards at the company, including mishandling of tanks of toxic benzene, believed to be the source of Thursday's explosion.

Other local media reports said chemical fertilizer may have also been involved in the explosion.

Those violations came despite the plant having racked up 1.79 million RMB ($267,000) in fines since 2016 for violations of environmental regulations, according to a judgments issued by local county and city environmental protection bureaus. Those included improperly dealing with hazardous waste and evading air pollution supervision.

A 2017 explosion that killed 10 at a nearby plant prompted the State Administration of Work Safety to dispatch inspectors. They discovered over 200 safety hazards at chemical factories in Yancheng and four nearby cities, including 13 at the Tianjiayi plant. Safety hazards cited included leaks and drips, employees who didn't understand safety procedures, and a lack of emergency shut-off valves on tanks carrying flammable chemicals.

In 2014, the company's chairman, Zhang Qinyue, and Wu Guozhong, its former supply chief, were arrested on suspicion of dumping and burying hazardous waste byproducts near a temple and a village landfill, according to a Jiangsu court criminal judgment. They were convicted in 2017 and the company was fined 1 million RMB ($149,000).

Associated Press writers Yanan Wang and Dake Kang contributed to this report.</s>HONG KONG — An explosion at a chemical plant shook an industrial zone in eastern China on Thursday afternoon, local news media reported.

The blast occurred midafternoon in Xiangshui County in Jiangsu Province, according to the Yangtse Evening Post.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities, but videos circulating online showed people who appeared to have been cut by glass and other debris.</s>BEIJING — A massive explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China with a long record of safety violations has killed at least 62 people and injured hundreds of others, 90 of them seriously.

The death toll appeared likely to rise still further, with another 28 people still listed as missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday. Just 26 of those confirmed dead in Thursday’s explosion have been identified so far, it said.

The blast in an industrial park in the city of Yancheng, north of Shanghai, was one of China’s worst industrial accidents in recent years. State-run television showed crushed cars, blown-out windows and workers leaving the factory with bloodied heads.

Schools were closed and nearly 1,000 residents were moved to safety as a precaution against leaks and additional explosions, the city government said in a statement posted to its microblog.

The blast created a crater, and more than 900 firefighters were deployed to extinguish the fire that burned into the night. Windows in buildings as far as 6 kilometers (4 miles) away were blown out by the force of the blast, which caused a magnitude 2.2 seismic shock.

The cause of the blast was under investigation, and people responsible for operations at the plant have been placed “under control,” Xinhua said. It wasn’t clear whether anyone had been formally arrested.

Drains and waterways running through and from the plant complex have been blocked to prevent toxic chemicals from running into the nearby Yellow Sea, under orders from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The orders covered sewage and rainwater outlets while further assessments of air and water quality were ongoing, Xinhua reported.

A resident of the community of Chenjiagang, about 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) from the plant, said glass from windows smashed by the force of the blast injured neighbors.

“At the time of the explosion, I was almost deafened and I was terribly frightened,” said the woman, who gave only her surname, Zhi.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a state visit to Italy, demanded “all-out efforts” to find and rescue victims, Xinhua reported.

“Relief work must be well done to maintain social stability. Meanwhile, environmental monitoring and early warning should be strengthened to prevent environmental pollution as well as secondary disasters,” it quoted Xi as saying.

Xi said local officials need to learn the lessons of a recent series of industrial accidents to save lives and property, signaling a likely crackdown on safety violations at a time when many Chinese companies are being hit by a downturn in sales that is squeezing profit margins.

The Yancheng city government statement said 3,500 medical workers at 16 hospitals were mobilized to treat the injured, dozens of whom remained in critical condition.

The U.N. said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply saddened” at the loss of life and injuries and sent “heartfelt sympathies” to the families of the victims and to the people and government of China.

State media said the State Council, China’s Cabinet, had been ordered to oversee the investigation.

China experiences frequent industrial accidents despite orders from the central government to improve safety at factories, power plants and mines.

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.

In November, at least 22 people were killed and scores of vehicles destroyed in an explosion outside a chemical plant in the northeastern city of Zhangjiakou, which will host competitions in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Thursday’s disaster occurred at a factory run by the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Co. Located among a cluster of chemical factories in Yancheng, it has a dismal safety record: In February 2018, China’s State Administration for Work Safety cited 13 types of safety hazards at the company, including mishandling of tanks of toxic benzene, the source of Thursday’s explosion.

Those violations came despite the plant having racked up 1.79 million RMB ($267,000) in fines since 2016 for violations of environmental regulations, according to a judgments issued by local county and city environmental protection bureaus. Those included improperly dealing with hazardous waste and evading air pollution supervision.

A 2017 explosion that killed 10 at a nearby plant prompted the State Administration of Work Safety to dispatch inspectors. They discovered over 200 safety hazards at chemical factories in Yancheng and four nearby cities, including 13 at the Tianjiayi plant. Safety hazards cited included leaks and drips, employees who didn’t understand safety procedures, and a lack of emergency shut-off valves on tanks carrying flammable chemicals.

In 2014, the company’s chairman, Zhang Qinyue, and Wu Guozhong, its former supply chief, were arrested on suspicion of dumping and burying hazardous waste byproducts near a temple and a village landfill, according to a Jiangsu court criminal judgment. They were convicted in 2017 and the company was fined 1 million RMB ($149,000).

Associated Press writers Yanan Wang and Dake Kang contributed to this report.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>An explosion at a pesticide plant in eastern China has killed 62 people, state media says, with 34 people critically injured and 28 missing.

The blast occurred on Thursday at the Chenjiagang Industrial Park in the city of Yancheng, in Jiangsu province, and the fire was finally brought under control at 3 a.m. local time on Friday (1900 GMT), state television said.

Survivors were taken to 16 hospitals with 640 people being treated for injuries, state media had said earlier.

The fire at a plant owned by the Tianjiayi Chemical Company spread to neighbouring factories. Children at a nearby kindergarten were also hurt, media said.

The cause of the explosion is being investigated, but the company - which produces more than 30 organic chemical compounds, some highly flammable - has been cited and fined for work safety violations in the past, the China Daily said.

Police, some wearing face masks, sealed off roads to the plant. The blast smashed windows in the village of Wangshang two kilometres away, and stunned villagers likened it to an earthquake.

"There was one loud bang followed by a long rumble," one, who gave his family name as Wang, told Reuters. "All the windows were smashed. I went to have a look. Near the site there was blood everywhere. People were crushed."

The village stands beside a murky mildewed pond and was built in 2013 for people displaced by the construction of the industrial park where the blast took place. Dozens of Wangshang residents work at the park, and many have not come home.

Many buildings had broken windows and further structural damage, but villagers have not been evacuated. Unlike the police on site, none of them wore masks and had not been advised to.

President Xi Jinping, who is in Italy on a state visit, ordered all-out efforts to care for the injured and to "earnestly maintain social stability", state television said.

Authorities must step up action to prevent such incidents and determine the cause of the blast as quickly as possible, Xi added.

"There has recently been a series of major accidents, and all places and relevant departments must fully learn the lessons from these," the report cited Xi as saying.</s>SHANGHAI (REUTERS) - An explosion at a pesticide plant in eastern China has killed 62 people and left 94 others seriously injured, state media said late on Friday (March 22), the latest casualties in a series of industrial accidents that has angered the public.

The blast occurred on Thursday at the Chenjiagang Industrial Park in the city of Yancheng, in Jiangsu province, and the fire was finally brought under control at 3am on Friday, state television said. 28 people remain missing.

The fire at a plant owned by the Tianjiayi Chemical Company spread to neighbouring factories. Children at a kindergarten in the vicinity were also injured in the blast, media reported.

The cause of the explosion is under investigation, but the company - which produces more than 30 organic chemical compounds, some of which are highly flammable - had been cited and fined for work safety violations in the past, the China Daily said.

A man who gave his surname as Wang said his 66-year-old mother died after her house located half a kilometre away from the plant collapsed on her on the impact of the explosion, Apple Daily reported.

It was "like a bomb, an atomic bomb", Mr Wang described.



Smoke billows from a fire following an explosion at the pesticide plant owned by Tianjiayi Chemical, in Xiangshui county, Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China, on March 21, 2019. PHOTO: REUTERS



Mr Lu Peiyu, who lives about 2km away from the site, said the blast cracked the walls of his house, shattered the windows, and even "the door was gone". He described an acrid smell shortly after the plant blew up.

The impact of the blast could be felt as far as 30km with shaking glass doors reported.

President Xi Jinping, who is in Italy on a state visit, ordered all-out efforts to care for the injured and to "earnestly maintain social stability", state television said.

The authorities must step up action to prevent such incidents from happening and find out the cause of the blast as quickly as possible, Mr Xi added.

"There have recently been a series of major accidents, and all places and relevant departments must fully learn the lessons from these," the report cited him as saying.

The Jiangsu environmental protection bureau said in a late Thursday statement that the environmental monitoring station in the area had found no abnormal concentrations of toluene, xylene or benzene.

Concentrations of acetone and chloroform outside the perimeter of the explosion zone were also within normal limits, it added.

Jiangsu will launch inspections on chemical producers and warehouses, according to an emergency notice published by official media on Friday.

Related Story China chemical plant blast kills 19, injures 12

The notice, published on the news website of Jiangsu province's Communist Party, said the government would shut down any chemical firms found not complying with regulations on dangerous chemicals.

Public anger over safety standards has grown in China following industrial accidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires that have marred three decades of swift economic growth.

In 2015, 165 people were killed in a series of explosions at a chemical warehouse in the northern city of Tianjin.

The explosions at Tianjin, one of the world's busiest ports and not far from the capital, Beijing, were big enough to be seen by satellites and register on earthquake sensors.

Despite repeated pledges by the government to tighten safety, chemical plants in particular have been plagued by disasters.

In November, a series of blasts during the delivery of a flammable gas at a chemical manufacturer killed 23 people.

Additional reporting by The Straits Times</s>A massive explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China with a long record of safety violations has killed at least 62 people and injured hundreds of others, 90 of them seriously.

The death toll appeared likely to rise still further, with another 28 people still listed as missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday. Just 26 of those confirmed dead in Thursday's explosion have been identified, it said.

The blast in an industrial park in the city of Yancheng, north of Shanghai, was one of China's worst industrial accidents in recent years. State-run television showed crushed cars, blown-out windows and workers leaving the factory with bloodied heads.

Schools were closed and nearly 1,000 residents were moved to safety as a precaution against leaks and additional explosions, the city government said in a statement posted to its microblog.

The blast created a crater, and more than 900 firefighters were deployed to extinguish the fire that burned into the night. Windows in buildings as far as 6 kilometers (4 miles) away were blown out by the force of the blast, which caused a magnitude 2.2 seismic shock.

The cause of the blast was under investigation, and people responsible for operations at the plant have been placed "under control," Xinhua said. It wasn't clear whether anyone had been formally arrested.

Drains and waterways running through and from the plant complex have been blocked to prevent toxic chemicals from running into the nearby Yellow Sea, under orders from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The orders covered sewage and rainwater outlets while further assessments of air and water quality were ongoing, Xinhua reported.

A resident of the community of Chenjiagang, about 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) from the plant, said glass from windows smashed by the force of the blast injured neighbors.

"At the time of the explosion, I was almost deafened and I was terribly frightened," said the woman, who gave only her surname, Zhi.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a state visit to Italy, demanded "all-out efforts" to find and rescue victims, Xinhua reported.

"Relief work must be well done to maintain social stability. Meanwhile, environmental monitoring and early warning should be strengthened to prevent environmental pollution as well as secondary disasters," it quoted Xi as saying.

Xi said local officials need to learn the lessons of a recent series of industrial accidents to save lives and property, signaling a likely crackdown on safety violations at a time when many Chinese companies are being hit by a downturn in sales that is squeezing profit margins.

On Xi's orders, State Councilor Wang Yong led officials from the State Council, China's Cabinet officials to the explosion site to "guide the rescue and emergency response work and visit the injured people," Xinhua said. The State Council has been ordered to oversee the investigation into the cause of the explosion, an indication of the seriousness with which the government regards the incident.

The Yancheng city government statement said 3,500 medical workers at 16 hospitals were mobilized to treat the injured, dozens of whom remained in critical condition.

The U.N. said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "deeply saddened" at the loss of life and injuries and sent "heartfelt sympathies" to the families of the victims and to the people and government of China.

China experiences frequent industrial accidents despite orders from the central government to improve safety at factories, power plants and mines.

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.

In November, at least 22 people were killed and scores of vehicles destroyed in an explosion outside a chemical plant in the northeastern city of Zhangjiakou, which will host competitions in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Thursday's disaster occurred at a factory run by the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Co. Located among a cluster of chemical factories in Yancheng, it has a dismal safety record: In February 2018, China's State Administration for Work Safety cited 13 types of safety hazards at the company, including mishandling of tanks of toxic benzene, believed to be the source of Thursday's explosion.

Other local media reports said chemical fertilizer may have also been involved in the explosion.

Those violations came despite the plant having racked up 1.79 million RMB ($267,000) in fines since 2016 for violations of environmental regulations, according to a judgments issued by local county and city environmental protection bureaus. Those included improperly dealing with hazardous waste and evading air pollution supervision.

A 2017 explosion that killed 10 at a nearby plant prompted the State Administration of Work Safety to dispatch inspectors. They discovered over 200 safety hazards at chemical factories in Yancheng and four nearby cities, including 13 at the Tianjiayi plant. Safety hazards cited included leaks and drips, employees who didn't understand safety procedures, and a lack of emergency shut-off valves on tanks carrying flammable chemicals.

In 2014, the company's chairman, Zhang Qinyue, and Wu Guozhong, its former supply chief, were arrested on suspicion of dumping and burying hazardous waste byproducts near a temple and a village landfill, according to a Jiangsu court criminal judgment. They were convicted in 2017 and the company was fined 1 million RMB ($149,000).

Associated Press writers Yanan Wang and Dake Kang contributed to this report.</s>The death toll from an explosion at a chemical plant in China’s eastern Jiangsu province has climbed to 64, while 28 people remain missing, official news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.

The authorities in the city of Yancheng, where Thursday's accident occurred, said that rescue teams were working round the clock to try and find those still missing. One survivor was rescued on Saturday morning.</s>The death toll from an explosion that ripped through a chemical plant in the eastern province of Jiangsu rose to 64 on Saturday morning, state media said, as local authorities continue searching for survivors.

The blast Thursday at the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Co., in Chenjiagang, was the latest reminder of continued industrial risks in China, which has seen several large factory explosions in recent years. The latest incident left 94 people with severe injuries and 28 people were still unaccounted for as of 7 a.m. Saturday, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the local government.

A cause has yet to be determined and local authorities were working to prevent chemical leaks, according to state broadcaster CCTV. More than 600 had suffered at least minor injuries, the Yancheng city government said on Friday.

Police have taken people into custody over the incident, according to the statement, which didn’t offer further details on the detentions.

China has been seeking to tighten safety after industrial accidents that included a massive explosion in 2015 at a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin, which killed 173 people. A blast at an auto parts plant in Suzhou in 2014 killed 146 people.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, set up an investigation team Friday to determine a cause of the Jiangsu explosion, CCTV said.</s>Beijing, Mar 23: The death toll in the powerful explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China climbed to 64 on Friday as a number of people succumbed to their injuries. President Xi Jinping ordered that the causes of the accident must be identified as early as possible.

He instructed local governments and relevant departments to learn the lesson hard, tighten safety hazard check, seriously implement the accountability system for workplace safety, to prevent such accidents, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The blast occurred on Thursday following a fire in a fertilizer factory in a chemical industrial park in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, according to the government of Xiangshui county.

Executives of the chemical plant province have been taken into police custody after the explosion killed at least 64 people, injured 640 others and polluted areas several kilometres away, South China Morning Post reported.

Eye-witnesses said several workers were trapped after buildings were knocked down by the shockwave stated to be a mild tremor caused by the blast which took place in a pesticide plant. The blast also shattered windows of nearby residential houses.

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The fire fighter brigade of Jiangsu has mobilised 176 fire trucks with 928 personnel to join the rescue mission, the Ministry of Emergency Management said. A professor of applied chemistry at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, in an interview with CCTV, said the leak of toxic chemicals might have affected the people and environment in the surrounding areas. The residents should be evacuated from the place as soon as possible, the profesor said.

According to the city's environmental protection authority, the explosion had a negative influence on the air quality in the chemical park and its surrounding areas within a 500-meter radius, but the strong winds are expected to lift the heavy smoke. No residents live in the chemical park, while all people in nearby areas have been evacuated, officials said.

Yancheng's education department said school students were among those injured in the explosion. Online maps of the area indicate that there are at least 10 schools close to the site.

Beijing Youth Daily reported that the explosion was caused by benzene and occurred in a production area of the plant. Production at other plants in the area were not affected, the report said.

A witness surnamed Xie living about 1.5-km from the plant told Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post that all her windows were shattered by the blast.

Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Company, which owns the plant, was established in 2007. Its business includes the manufacture of chemical products such as hydroxybenzoic acid.
Officials report the death toll is now 62 from Thursday's chemical plant explosion in Chenjiagang Industrial Park in northeastern Jiangsu Province, with 94 others seriously injured and 28 people still missing.