Huge explosion rips through a Chinese chemical plant, leaving it engulfed in a massive fireball
- The blast today rocked a chemical plant in Zhuhai, southern China
- Footage shows it triggering a fire which was put out two hours later
- No one was killed or hurt in the explosion, the local authority said
- Environment officials were said to be monitoring the nearby areas
A huge explosion today rocked a chemical factory in southern China.
Footage released by local media shows the plant in Zhuhai engulfed in a massive fireball moments after the blast took place in the early afternoon.
No one was killed or hurt in the accident, claimed the local authority. An investigation has been launched.
Footage shows black smoke billowing into the air as the plant in China is swallowed by fire
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The explosion occurred at the Changlian Petrochemical Plant in the district of Gaolangang at around 1:40pm, announced Zhuhai Emergency Management Bureau on social media.
In a post on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, the authority said the fire was put out about two hours after the accident.
It added that rescuers attended the scene as quickly as possible and investigators were probing for the cause of the blast.
The Bureau also stressed that the explosion had not caused changes in any environmental readings. Local environment officials were said to be monitoring the surrounding areas.
Zhuhai is a city of 1.9 million people situated in the southernmost part of Guangdong Province, bordering Macau.
Another clip released by state media shows workers fleeing for their lives from the factory
One video clip circulating on social media shows the factory swallowed by a huge fire as plumes of black smoke billowed into the air.
Another clip released by state media CCTV shows workers escaping from the fire-ravaged plant.
The Zhuhai Fire Brigade dispatched 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters to the scene. Fire brigades in the nearby city of Guangzhou, Foshan, Jiangmen and Zhongshan also provided assistance, CCTV reported.
The authority is investigating the cause of the accident.
Zhuhai is a city of 1.9 million people situated in the southernmost part of Guangdong Province
Industrial accidents are common in China, where safety regulations are often poorly enforced.
In March last year, a blast at a chemical plant in eastern Jiangsu province killed 78 people and injured hundreds.
Four months later in July, a huge explosion left 15 dead at a gas plant in central China.
In November, 2018, a truck carrying combustible chemicals exploded at the entrance of a chemical factory in Zhangjiakou, a northern Chinese city that will co-host the 2022 Winter Olympics, killing 23 people and injuring 22 others.
Among the worst accidents was a massive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city of Tianjin that killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers. That blast was blamed on illegal construction and unsafe storage of volatile materials.
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