Fire triggers explosion, killing 47 in China's Shanxi

TAIYUAN: A blast caused by privately stored explosives in North China's Shanxi Province killed 47 on Friday and injured 20 others, rescuers said.

The explosion occurred around 6:30 am in a villager's home in Dongzhai Village, Ningwu County, local police sources confirmed.

A preliminary investigation suggests that a fire triggered the explosion.

The villager's home caught fire in the early hours of Friday morning and many locals rushed to help extinguish the blaze before the bungalow exploded, said an employee of the Ningwu County Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The explosion instantly killed 37 people, including some onlookers, while 10 died later in hospital.

The house was left in rubble and windows of nearby buildings were shattered, according to the employee, who declined to be named.

Zhang Baoshun, secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), demanded that all-out efforts be made to rescue the injured, and those responsible be punished according to law.

Ningwu County, administered by Xinzhou City, is more than four hours by bus from Taiyuan, the provincial capital.

Party and government authorities of Ningwu and Xinzhou have rushed to the scene to oversee the rescue work.

A rescue headquarters has been set up, consisting of seven specialized taskforces.

More than 200 firefighters and police officers are working to clear away the debris.

It was not the first fatal blast in the county. On July 2 last year, a gas explosion at the Jiajiabao Coal Mine in Ningwu killed 36 people and injured 11.

The mine's owner hid the bodies of 17 dead miners after the explosion to evade punishment.

Shanxi Province, with one third of the country's total coal reserves, is the biggest coal producer in China. However, legions of fatal accidents occur in the province each year. Many are caused by illegal storage of explosives used for mining.

A similar fatal explosion occurred in Yuanping this April. More than three tons of explosives illegally hidden in the garage of the staff hospital attached to the Xuangang Coal and Electricity Company were detonated, killing 34 people.

Last month, 10 people were killed when privately stored explosives went off in a residential building in Fanshi.

3 killed as building collapses

In Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province, three people were confirmed dead and three others injured when a seven-storey residential building collapsed early on Friday morning.

Rescuers said they were not sure how many people are still buried in the rubble.

The building collapsed at around 1:30 am after a wall cracked.

The rescue operation is in full swing and the cause of the accident is being investigated.

Source: Xinhua/China Daily