Rescuers are responding to a suspected gas leak explosion on Wednesday at a building in northern China that killed one person and injured 22, authorities said.
The explosion occurred early in the morning at a fried chicken shop in the city of Sanhe, authorities said in a brief statement. The city is just an hour’s drive west of Beijing.
Police cordoned off streets within a kilometre (more than half a mile) of the blast site, Associated Press reporters said, and were directing people away.
As of 11 a.m., fire trucks were still arriving at the scene and a truck could be seen hauling away a burned-out car with its windows smashed out. Pieces of the building’s frame stood tilted over piles of rubble.
According to national broadcaster CCTV, more than 150 firefighters were deployed to tackle the blaze. Online videos showed smoke billowing from a mid-rise commercial building at an intersection.
A seller at a local market told AFP:
“I heard a great big bang… which scared me stiff. Outside, I saw clouds of black smoke.”
Another seller said he also heard a “huge bang” from the blast site, located in a busy village of squat apartment blocks about six to seven floors high.
Last month, at least 15 people were killed and 44 injured in a fire at an apartment block in the eastern city of Nanjing.
In January, dozens of people died in a fire at a shop in the central city of Xinyu. The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that the fire was caused by “illegal” use of fire by workers in the shop’s basement.
The fire comes just days after 13 schoolchildren sleeping in a dormitory at a school in the central province of Henan died late last night. According to domestic media reports, the fire was caused by an electric heating appliance.
Last November, 26 people died and dozens were sent to hospital after a fire at a coal company office in northern China’s Shaanxi province.
Last June, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the northwest of the country killed 31 people, prompting official announcements of a nationwide campaign to improve workplace safety.
