Explosion at China Chemical Plant Kills 64; Employees Detained

16:44, 23.03.2019

The police on Friday detained personnel from a chemical plant in eastern China after an explosion killed at least 64 people, setting off an inferno that firefighters battled through the night and raising fears of toxic substances spreading in the air and water.

The blast Thursday afternoon at Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Company, on the outskirts of the city of Yancheng in Jiangsu Province, was believed to have caused a tremor equivalent to a magnitude-2.2 earthquake, the China Earthquake Administration said.

The explosion seriously injured 94 people, including the general manager of the plant, Zhang Qinyue. An undisclosed number of other company employees were detained after the blast, Yancheng officials said on Friday.

The cause of the blast has not been confirmed, but one worker said a tanker truck carrying natural gas had caught fire, setting off an explosion in a benzene storage area, according to a report from Caixin, a Chinese business news outlet.

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