Chinese fireworks truck explosion destroys motorway killing 26 people
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | February 1, 2013 19:52
A truck carrying thousands of fireworks bound for Chinese New Year parties across China exploded today, destroying a motorway flyover and leaving up to 26 people dead.
The explosion was so powerful that it shattered the windows of a truck shop more than 50 metres away.
Emergency crews closed the 80-metre stretch of highway as they grappled with the twisted mound of wrecked vehicles below in a desperate race against the clock to find survivors.
State TV broadcaster CCTV said eight people were confirmed dead and 11 injured, after seven vehicles were recovered from the wreckage.
The death toll appeared likely to rise: The official Xinhua News Agency said the collapse smashed and buried at least 25 vehicles.
Earlier reports by China National Radio and some other outlets of 26 people killed were later removed from websites, without explanation.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the explosion. It occurred about 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Luoyang, an ancient capital of China known for grottoes of Buddhist statues carved from limestone cliffs.
Fireworks are an enormously popular part of Chinese Lunar New Year festivities. To meet the demand, fireworks are made, shipped and stored in large quantities, sometimes in unsafe conditions.
A result is periodic catastrophe: In 2006, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, a storeroom of fireworks exploded at a temple fair in Henan, killing 36 people and injuring dozens more.
In 2000, an unlicensed fireworks factory in southern China exploded, killing 33 people, including 13 primary and secondary school students working there.
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