Beijing, July 15: An explosion and fire killed at least five people, left two missing and injured more than 100 at a chemical plant in central China’s Henan province on Wednesday, state media said.
The blast ripped through the plant owned by the Luoran chemical dye company in Henan’s Luoyang city in the early hours of Wednesday, killing five night shift workers, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Two other night shift workers remained missing, while more than 100 local residents were injured, most of them apparently suffering from smoke inhalation.
Flames and thick clouds of black smoke engulfed the factory until firefighters extinguished the blaze about 10 hours later, the agency said.
Authorities evacuated several hundred more local residents living within a 1-kilometre radius of the plant, it said.
The Luoran company employs about 180 people to make chemicals for the dyeing industry. Some of the chemicals are exported to Japan, Britain and several South-east Asian countries.
Another explosion injured eight people, including six in critical condition, at the Changshou Chemical Company in the south-western city on Wednesday morning, the agency said.
–Agencies