Massive tanker explosion injures more than 100 in China
Beijing: At least 14 people have been killed when a tanker truck exploded and burst into flames in a section of the Shenyang-Haikou expressway near Wenling in Zehjiang province in eastern China.
Another 168 people were injured, the official news agency Xinhua reported early on Sunday morning, citing local authorities.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, firefighters work at the site of buildings damaged after a tanker truck explosion on a highway in Wenling, in eastern China's Zhejiang Province. Credit:AP
The truck left the highway and crashed into houses and a factory close to the village of Liangshan, local media reported, citing sources.
The ministries for public security and civil protection sent working groups to the scene of the accident. Rescue work was ongoing.
Videos of the accident, near the city of Wenling around 4pm, showed a large explosion that appeared to send the chassis of the truck careening into nearby buildings. Other footage picked up by Chinese state news outlets showed charred facades of nearby buildings with windows blown out by the shock wave, and flaming wreckage sending up thick black plumes into the sky.
Chinese state news outlets said rescue workers were searching for people trapped in the residential and factory buildings, some of which had collapsed. The truck was carrying gas between two cities on China's east coast, Ningbo and Wenzhou, and was exiting a highway when the accident occurred, according to the state-run Zhejiang News. The accident shut down traffic on the highway going both ways. Other videos showed cars nearby on fire.
Over the past two decades China has built out an extensive highway network, and the number of vehicles on it has grown rapidly. That has driven problems with road safety that the government has sought to address in sporadic safety campaigns. More than 200,000 Chinese die each year in road accidents, according to the World Health Organisation.
DPA, New York Times