Two people were killed and four seriously injured in an explosion in Ningbo, a major port and industrial hub situated in China’s Zhejiang province, on November 26.
At least fifteen other people were injured in the blast, the local authorities said in an update today, as two remain missing.
Based on the initial reports, the powerful explosion occurred in an industrial area causing nearby residential buildings marked for demolition to collapse.
An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the incident as local firefighters and emergency response and medical rescue teams search the area for potential victims that might have been trapped in the debris.
Reports of a potential gas explosion from the underground pipelines have been ruled out so far in the probe.
Despite governmental efforts to reduce the number of industrial accidents in China, incidents of this type remain to be pretty common.
In August 2015, two huge explosions happened in a warehouse area in the port district in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, and were equivalent to 3 tonnes of TNT and 21 tonnes of TNT respectively. Vast areas of the port were devastated in the blast that killed over 100 people.
World Maritime News Staff