A major explosion hit China’s megaport city of Ningbo on Sunday, killing at least two people, injuring dozens and destroying buildings and cars, state media and local authorities said.
The Ningbo government said on a social media account that the blast occurred in a “vacant lot” but it did not provide details about what may have caused it.
Local authorities said two people died, two were seriously injured and an unidentified number were being treated for injuries in the major port city.
The Xinhua news agency said earlier that the explosion had taken place in a factory at around 9:00 am while CCTV television said some 30 people were hospitalised.
Industrial accidents are common in China, where safety standards are often lax.
Television images showed cars twisted and mangled by the force of the explosion, a plume of grey smoke rising in the sky, and debris scattered for dozens of metres around the site of the incident.
Footage showed rescuers wearing helmets carrying injured people away from the area, while others stood over a person lying on the ground.
Pieces of concrete, wood and glass were strewn across a large area. Metal gates were twisted open and windows blown out.
According to CCTV, eyewitnesses said there were “a large number of injured people” in the city, one of China’s largest ports, which sits just south of Shanghai.
The Communist Party’s People’s Daily said on Twitter that no one lived at site of the explosion but garbage collectors might have been working there.
An enquiry has been launched to determine the cause of the explosion, the local police in Jiangbei district, where the blast happened, said on social media.
Ningbo is one of the country’s major international cargo and container shipping ports.
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