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Chinese factory explosion injures hundreds
[
29 Jul 2010 00:18 ]
Baku-APA. The blast, which broke office windows in a two-mile zone around the site, occurred after construction workers accidentally cut a gas pipe, APA reports quoting telegraph.co.uk website.
Initial reports of the number of dead and wounded were significantly higher, with Nanjing television claiming 76 dead and 5,000 injured.
The factory was in a heavily residential area and flanked by a hotel and a shopping centre. At least 52 people are thought to be in a critical state.
However, Chinese censors cordoned off the scene and wiped news reports from the internet within an hour of the explosion. Officials angrily confronted television cameramen, with one demanding: "Who gave you the right to film live?" The subsequent government reports played down the seriousness of the incident, despite eye witness accounts to the contrary.
The blast shredded at least one bus, leaving only a skeleton behind, and toppled nearby factories and an enormous cloud of black smoke blanketed the area. "Many residents have been injured and sent to hospitals, we urgently need a lot of blood," said the Jiangsu provincial blood bank on its website.
"We live quite close to the explosion site, on the fourth floor. All of our windows were shattered, the sky turned dark and there were pieces of foam the size of pancake flying through the sky. We need to get some masks," said Gao Yuan, a witness at the scene.
Deadly industrial accidents are common in China and safety provisions are often ignored. Last week, an oil pipeline exploded in the northern port of Dalian, triggering China’s worst-ever oil spill.
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