Huge Explosion At China Restaurant: 1 Killed And 22 Injured; Vehicles Damaged
One person was killed and 22 others injured following a gas explosion at a Yanjiao restaurant in north China’s Hebei Province on Wednesday, damaging the building and several vehicles, official media reported.
The explosion is suspected to have been caused by a gas leak at a fried chicken shop in Yanjiao township, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Yanjiao township is located on the outskirts of Beijing.
State media Global Times reported that the explosion occurred at a restaurant on the ground floor of an old residential complex in Hebei province.
Videos from the scene circulating online show a huge plume of blue smoke, several damaged sedans, and debris scattered all over the ground. Local authorities have sent an investigation team to the scene and are currently conducting rescue work, reports said.
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Police cordoned off streets 1 kilometre out from the explosion, Associated Press reported, and were directing people away. Fire engines were still arriving at the scene as of 11 am, and a truck could be seen hauling away a burnt-out car with its windows gone.
“An explosion occurred at the ground floor restaurant in an old residential area,” state broadcaster CCTV reported, adding it was a “suspected gas explosion”.
The blast took place around 7:55am (local time), CCTV said, in a residential area in the village of Xiaozhanggezhuang, Yanjiao, in Sanhe City, less than 50 kilometres east of the capital Beijing.
A video on social media showed what appeared to be a building that had completely collapsed and several destroyed cars.
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China: Two coal mine accidents kill 12
In unrelated incidents, two separate coal mine accidents have killed 12 people in China over the 24 hours, state broadcaster CCTV reported, the latest incidents to plague the industry after the government recently revised mining safety legislation.
An underground coal bunker owned by a firm in Zhongyang County, Shanxi province collapsed right before midnight on Monday, killing five people with two missing, CCTV said on Tuesday.
The fatal accident in Shanxi comes after its mining safety regulator issued a notice last month telling mines to curb overproduction to prevent accidents. China’s top producing coal mine region saw a surge in deaths in 2023.
In 2023, China had a string of deadly coal mine accidents, forcing the country’s mine safety administration to revamp an existing law that an official said had “prominent problems”.