BEIJING (Reuters) - A series of blasts during the delivery of a flammable gas at a chemical manufacturer in China on Wednesday killed 23 people and injured at least 22, the latest casualties in a series of industrial accidents that has angered the public.

A video of the blast scene broadcast by state media showed billowing black smoke and flames, while photographs showed rows of burnt-out cars and trucks.

An explosion during a delivery of acetylene set off a chain reaction among trucks parked along a road, leaving 50 vehicles damaged, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the city’s fire fighting department.

The local government announced the casualty toll in a social media posting.

The acetylene was being delivered to the Haipoer New Energy Technology Company in Zhangjiakou city, in the northern province of Hebei, Xinhua reported.

Reuters was unable to contact Haipoer for comment.

All fires at the blast site had been extinguished, state media reported.

Production at the nearby Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co was operating normally, Xinhua reported. A woman who answered the plant’s telephone had earlier told Reuters that production had been suspended.

Zhangjiakou, about 156 km (96 miles) northwest of Beijing, is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics along with the capital.

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Public anger over safety standards has grown in China after three decades of swift economic growth has been marred by accidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires.

In August 2015, 165 people were killed in a chemical warehouse explosion in the port city of Tianjin. The government found that the disaster was causes by improperly or illegally stored hazardous materials.

China has vowed to improve industrial standards, but environmentalists say they fear oversight weaknesses persist, including an opaque production process for hazardous chemicals.</s>An explosion and fire near a chemical factory left at least 22 people dead and 22 others injured in northern China on Wednesday, authorities said.

[BEIJING] An explosion and fire near a chemical factory left at least 22 people dead and 22 others injured in northern China on Wednesday, authorities said.

The incident near Hebei Shenghua Chemical in Zhangjiakou, a city some 20km northwest of Beijing, also burned 50 large and small trucks, the local propaganda department said on its Weibo social media account.

The injured were taken to hospital for treatment following the blast, which occurred at 12.41am, according to the statement.

The charred and smoking remains of trucks and cars were scattered on a road as firefighters worked at the scene, according to photos posted on Twitter by state broadcaster CGTN.

"On-site search and rescue work and investigation of the cause of the accident are still under way," the propaganda department said.</s>22 people died and 22 more were injured in an explosion near a chemical plant in China's city of Zhangjiakou, the city’s authorities said in a statement.

The fire after the explosion has destroyed 38 trucks and 12 cars, according to reports.

The blast occurred at 0:41 a.m. (16:41 on Tuesday GMT). ​The search and rescue operation as well as the investigation into the causes of the explosion are ongoing.</s>22 people have died and 22 more were injured in a blast outside a Chinese chemical factory.

The blast occurred as the vehicle waited to enter Hebei Shenghua Chemical Co plant.

The plant is situated in Zhangjiakou, north of Beijing.

Thirty-eight trucks and 12 vehicles were engulfed by flames, city officials said.

The charred and smoking remains of trucks and cars were scattered on a road as firefighters worked at the scene, according to photos posted on Twitter by state broadcaster CGTN.

"On-site search and rescue work and investigation of the cause of the accident are still under way," the city's government said.

Zhangjiakou is due to host the alpine skiing events at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

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Click here for iPhone and here for Android</s>Beijing, Nov 28: At least 22 people were killed near north China chemical plant, reports AFP quoting official.

The incident near Hebei Shenghua Chemical Co. in Zhangjiakou, a city some 200 kilometres (124 miles) northwest of Beijing, also burned 50 large and small trucks, the local propaganda department said on its Weibo social media account.

The injured were taken to hospital for treatment following the blast, which occurred at 00:41 am, according to the statement.</s>Beijing: A huge explosion outside a chemical plant in China’s northern Hebei province on Wednesday killed at least 22 people and left as many others injured, the second major industrial accident in the country in the last four days.

The blast occurred outside the Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry in Zhangjiakou, Qiaodong district around 12:40 am, igniting a fire that engulfed nearby vehicles, the officials were quoted as saying by thepaper.cn, a Shanghai-based website.

An industrial safety official, identified only as Wu, said that one of the trucks lined up outside the plant to deliver chemicals had exploded, setting off a chain reaction that engulfed other trucks.

Chinese news reports, and images from the scene, indicated that a fiery explosion near the plant had set around 50 vehicles ablaze, including dozens of trucks, and sent a dark plume of smoke into the night sky.

The fire has now been contained, and a search operation is underway, authorities said. The injured have been taken to a nearby hospital.

Employees at the Shenghua plant said operation has been suspended out of safety concern.

Shenghua is affiliated with China Haohua Chemical Group, a subsidiary of State-owned ChemChina, which is ranked 167th among Global Fortune 500 enterprises.

Fu Jianhua, the vice-minister of emergency management, has led a team to the site to guide relief work, the report said.

Zhangjiakou, a city about 156 km northwest of Beijing, is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics alongside the capital.

Industrial safety is a major concern in China, where requirements for the storage and transport of chemicals and other dangerous products are often weakly enforced.

This is the second major industrial explosion in China in the last four days.

Two people were killed and 57 injured in a warehouse explosion in northeast China’s Jilin Province on November 24.

A total of 370 houses have been damaged, with 15 having collapsed.

A massive explosion in 2015 traced to improperly stored chemicals killed at least 173 people in Tianjin, about an hour east of Beijing. (PTI)</s>BEIJING (AP) — An explosion outside a chemical plant in northeastern China early Wednesday killed at least 22 people and destroyed scores of vehicles, in the latest challenge to efforts to boost industrial safety in…

BEIJING (AP) — An explosion outside a chemical plant in northeastern China early Wednesday killed at least 22 people and destroyed scores of vehicles, in the latest challenge to efforts to boost industrial safety in the world’s second-largest economy.

The blast occurred just after midnight at a loading area next to the plant operated by the Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., according to a statement from the Zhangjiakou city government. The plant is located in Zhangjiakou, which is to play host to the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Another 22 people were injured and 38 trucks and 12 passenger cars were destroyed by fire, the statement said.

“We request that citizens do not go to the site to watch in order to avoid disrupting recovery efforts,” it said.

An official at the city government propaganda department, who gave only his surname, Gao, said the accident’s cause was still under investigation and no other information could be provided.

Footage from state broadcaster China Central Television showed row after row of charred tanker trucks with smoke still rising from some of them, hours after the explosion occurred.

On its website, Hebei Shenghua described itself as a “backbone enterprise of the city, and for the domestic chlor-alkali industry and one of the Top 500 chemical enterprises in the country.”

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the chlor-alkali electrolysis process is used mainly to manufacture chlorine, along with hydrogen and sodium hydroxide solution.

Chlorine is one of the most commonly produced chemicals, widely used in the textile and paper industries, as well as for general cleaning and disinfecting and as a raw material for synthetic organic chemistry. It is also an essential component of construction materials, solvents and insecticides.

Other products made at the plant include PVC resins, caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, oxygen, chlorine, dissolved acetylene, coated kettle agent, water treatment chemicals and new building materials, according to the company website.

The company is a subsidiary of state-owned China National Chemical Corporation, China’s largest chemical company, listed 167th on the Fortune Global 500 list.

Industrial safety is a major concern in China, where requirements for the storage and transport of chemicals and other dangerous products are often weakly enforced.

A massive explosion in 2015 traced to improperly stored chemicals killed at least 173 people in Tianjin, about an hour east of Beijing.

More recently, 52 people were sickened when around 7 tons of the common chemical additive C9 leaked while workers were loading barrels onto a ship in Fujian province on Nov. 4.

While the ruling Communist Party emphasizes improvements in industrial safety, the authorities remain extremely sensitive about the potential for social unrest.

Over recent years, grass-roots movements have brought thousands of people onto the streets in cities across China to protest accidents and plans for chemical plants, garbage incinerators and other projects deemed harmful to the environment.

In the C9 leak case, police staged a late night raid on the hotel room of a reporter writing about the accident for one of China’s most respected business media groups. The officers, who said they were conducting a routine inspection, departed after conducting a search, but footage of the raid was leaked online, prompting the local police department to issue a rare apology.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>BEIJING (Reuters) - A blast near a chemical plant in China’s northern Hebei province early Wednesday killed 22 people and injured at least 22 others, the local government said.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the blast in Zhangjiakou city, the local government said in an online statement.</s>An explosion and fire near a chemical factory left at least 22 people dead and 22 others injured on Wednesday in a northern China region that will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, authorities said.

The incident near Hebei Shenghua Chemical Co. in Zhangjiakou, a city some 200 kilometres (124 miles) northwest of Beijing, also burned 50 large and small trucks, the local propaganda department said on its Weibo social media account.

The injured were taken to hospital for treatment following the blast, which occurred at 00:41 am, according to the statement.

The charred and smoking remains of trucks and cars were scattered on a road as firefighters worked at the scene, according to photos posted on Twitter by state broadcaster CGTN.

The statement did not say whether the factory was affected by the blast or whether it took place on a road.

"On-site search and rescue work and investigation of the cause of the accident are still under way," the propaganda department said.

Zhangjiakou will host the Olympic alpine skiing events at the 2022 Winter Games, which Beijing is organising.

It was not immediately clear if the explosion was near the site.

Road and industrial accidents are common in China.

A blast at a chemical plant in southwest Sichuan province left 19 dead and 12 injured in July. The company had undertaken illegal construction that had not passed safety checks, according to local authorities.

In 2015, giant chemical blasts in a container storage facility killed at least 165 people in the northern port city of Tianjin.

The explosions caused more than $1 billion in damage and sparked widespread anger at a perceived lack of transparency over the accident's causes and its environmental impact.

China has also also experienced its share of horrific road crashes, with traffic regulations often flouted or unenforced.

Two cars ploughed into crowds in two separate incidents in recent days: Five children were killed when a driver deliberately rammed into students crossing a road in northeast China last week and seven people died when another car hit people on a sidewalk in the southwest on Tuesday.

An out-of-control truck ploughed into a 31-car lineup in northwest Gansu province earlier this month, killing 15 people and injuring 44.

In November last year, a highway pile-up involving at least 30 cars killed 18 people in eastern Anhui province.</s>Shijiazhuang: A blast near a chemical plant in Zhangjiakou city, in north China`s Hebei province, has killed 22 and injured 22 others early Wednesday morning, local authorities said.

The blast occurred near Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co Ltd. in Zhangjiakou at around 0:40 AM local time.

Fire caused by the blast has engulfed 38 trucks and 12 vehicles, according to the sources from Zhangjiakou city government, Xinhua news agency reported.

The injured have been rushed to hospitals. Further investigation is underway.
A chain reaction of exploding trucks triggered by a blast during the delivery of acetylene gas at a chemical plant in Zhangjiakou, China, kills 23 people and injures at least 22 others.