Rescue workers search at site after an explosion hit a town in Fugu county, Shaanxi province, China, October 24, 2016. China Daily/via REUTERS

BEIJING (Reuters) - A powerful blast at a prefabricated house in northwestern China on Monday killed at least 14 people and injured 147, state news agency Xinhua said.

The explosion occurred in the early afternoon in the town of Xinmin in Shaanxi province, damaging dozens of buildings including the local hospital, Xinhua said.

An initial police investigation indicated that the blast was caused by illegally stored explosives, Xinhua said, adding that authorities had detained the owner of the building and were searching for the tenant.

Eleven of the injured were in intensive care.

Pictures carried by state media showed rescuers digging through the rubble of low rise buildings, though searches for the incident on Chinese social media were blocked on Tuesday.

China has a bad safety record, with previous blasts blamed on poorly stored chemicals or industrial explosives which are easy to get hold of due to their use in China’s booming coal mining sector.

A series of powerful explosions last year at a chemicals warehouse in the northern city of Tianjin killed 165.

There have also been cases of people deliberately setting off blasts to settle local grievances such as land disputes.</s>The explosion in the northwestern town of Xinmin in Shaanxi province injured 147 people and damaged dozens of buildings, including a hospital.

"Three suspects were arrested early Tuesday morning. All three confessed their guilt," Xinhua said late on Tuesday, adding that authorities had launched a province-wide investigation into the production and storage of explosives.

The five houses where the blast occurred were rental properties and their owner had been taken into police custody, the news agency said.

It was unclear what type of explosives caused the blast or what their intended use was, but Shaanxi is a coal-mining province and explosives are widely used in the industry.

Previous blasts have been blamed on improperly stored chemicals or industrial explosives. Explosions at fireworks factories are also not uncommon.

A series of powerful blasts last year at a chemicals warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin killed 165 people.

There have also been cases of people deliberately setting off blasts to settle grievances such as land disputes.</s>The explosion, whose cause was as yet unknown, occurred in the early afternoon in the town of Xinmin in Shaanxi province, damaging dozens of buildings including the local hospital, Xinhua said.

Four of the injured were in intensive care, it said.

Pictures carried by state media showed rescuers digging through the rubble of low rise buildings.

Some online news sites quoted residents as saying the blast could have been caused by illegally stored explosives.

China has a bad safety record, with previous blasts blamed on poorly stored chemicals or industrial explosives which are easy to get hold of due to their use in China's booming coal mining sector.

A series of powerful explosions last year at a chemicals warehouse in the northern city of Tianjin killed 165.

There have also been cases of people deliberately setting off blasts to settle local grievances such as land disputes.</s>The local government in Shaanxi province said in a statement late Monday that 147 had been injured.

According to state broadcaster Xinhua, the blast took place at about 2 p.m in a prefabricated house which had been built inside a larger residential compound.

Rescue crews were combing through the rubble overnight in the hope of finding survivors and to discover the cause of the explosion.

The city hospital was damaged in the blast, as were several other buildings in the near vicinity, Xinhua said.</s>A powerful explosion of unclear origin killed at least seven people and injured 94 others in China’s Shaanxi Province on Monday afternoon, state-run media reported.

Xinhua News Agency said the explosion occurred at 2 p.m. at a prefabricated house in a residential compound in a township of Fugu County in Yulin, a prefecture-level city in northern Shaanxi.

It said that the blast damaged or destroyed nearby buildings, including the township’s hospital, and that dozens of firefighters and rescuers were still combing the rubble for more survivors.

Xinhua said it remains unclear what caused the explosion.

Earlier in the day, however, the same news agency said a local newspaper had quoted residents as saying the blast “might be related to unlicensed storage of explosives.”
Illegally stored explosives cause an explosion in a house in northwestern China that kills at least 14 people and injures 147 others in the town of Xinmin in Shaanxi province.