SHANGHAI—An explosion at a pesticide plant in eastern China has killed 47 people and injured more than 600, state media said on 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 3.00 a.m. on Friday, state television said.
Survivors were taken to 16 hospitals with 640 people being treated for injuries. Thirty-two of them were critically injured, it said.
The fire at a plant owned by the Tianjiayi Chemical Company spread to neighboring factories. Children at a kindergarten in the vicinity were also injured in the blast, media reported.
The cause of the explosion was under investigation.
Public anger over safety standards has grown in China over industrial accidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires that have marred three decades of swift economic growth.
The Chinese regime has pledged to improve safety in factories, though explosions and other incidents are still commonplace.
In November, two people were killed and 24 others injured in an explosion at a machinery plant in the northern Chinese province of Jilin. And in the city of Ningbo, two people were killed in a factory explosion.
In August, five people were killed in an explosion at an aluminum plant in the eastern city of Jiangsu.
In July, 19 people died in a blast at a chemical plant in the southwestern province of Sichuan.