Lagatar24 Desk
Beijing, Jan 16: A massive chemical plant explosion in north-eastern China has killed at least two people with 12 missing.
In another incident, 34 people were injured in the explosion that happened on Sunday in the suburbs of the city of Panjin in Liaoning province east of the capital Beijing.
Local government have made new releases showing photos of flames and thick black smoke rising from the complex of chemical processing machinery, pipes and storage containers.
Fire crews have brought the blaze under control and the local environmental department was monitoring the impact on air quality in the area, the government of Panshan County in the city’s suburbs said in a news release.
The cause of the accident remained under investigation, authorities said. People posting on social media said they felt the shock of the explosion, but the damage did not appear to extend beyond the plant.
China, with the world’s second-largest economy, suffers deadly industrial accidents on a regular basis.
The central government has pledged stronger safety measures ever since an explosion in 2015 at a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers. In that case, a number of local officials were accused of taking bribes to ignore safety violations.
