(Sanhe) A large explosion, probably caused by gas, left one dead and 22 injured on Wednesday in the Chinese province of Hebei (north), destroying at least one building according to state media and images on social networks.
“So far, the accident has left one dead and 22 injured,” said public channel CCTV, specifying that the presumed cause of the explosion was a gas leak in a fried chicken restaurant.
According to Chinese television, the explosion took place shortly before 8 a.m. (8 p.m. Eastern Time), in a residential area of the city of Sanhe, less than 50 kilometers east of Beijing.
It “occurred on the ground floor of a restaurant located in an old residential area,” according to CCTV.
“The injured were taken to hospital,” the channel said.
An AFP journalist on site saw police diverting traffic from the entrance to the neighborhood where the explosion took place.
Images on Chinese social media showed a very large explosion causing thick smoke and flames above a very busy road at this busy time of traffic.
SCREENSHOT OBTAINED BY REUTERS
At least one building was destroyed.
In other images, we see a completely collapsed building and several destroyed cars.
Laxity
Rescue teams were immediately deployed to the scene, with 36 emergency vehicles and 154 personnel dispatched to assist in the operations, according to local fire services.
“The fire is currently under control,” they said.
A shopkeeper working in a nearby shop told state media Jimu News that she heard a loud “bang”.
She then came out of her store and saw a building on fire. “It was practically destroyed,” she testified.
SCREENSHOT OBTAINED BY REUTERS
Several cars were destroyed.
Fires and other fatal accidents are common in China due to lax enforcement of safety standards.
This prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping to issue “important instructions requiring that the number of accidents be resolutely limited” at the start of the year.
In February, a fire in a residential building left at least 15 dead and 44 injured in Nanjing, in eastern China, the fire apparently having started where electric two-wheelers were located.
The previous month, 39 people were killed and nine injured in a store fire in central Jiangxi province. And just five days earlier, a fire in the boarding school of a school in Henan province (central) had killed 13 schoolchildren.
Last June, an explosion at a restaurant in northwest China killed 31 people and prompted authorities to embark on a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.