Fireworks blast kills eight in eastern China

[News_Editor]

Fireworks blast kills eight in eastern China

2010-12-12 19:56:50 GMT+7 (ICT)

JINAN, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- A fireworks explosion in eastern China killed eight people and injured several others on Sunday, state media reported.

The blast happened at around 4.50 a.m. local time in Yangxin county of east China's Shandong Province when a room stored with fireworks exploded on a busy street, the state-run Xinhua news agency cited officials as saying.

Few details were immediately released about the incident, but police said the room owner was blamed for illegally storing the fireworks at the location.

The wife of the room owner was killed at the scene, while thirteen others were transported to a nearby hospital where seven of them passed away. The others remain in a stable condition.

Accidents involving fireworks are rare, but occur more frequently towards the end of the year. Earlier this year, in late August, six people were killed and nearly a dozen others were injured when a blast rocked a fireworks factory in southwest China.

Other notable fireworks-related accidents happened on May 13, 2000 when twenty-three people were killed and nearly 950 others were injured when a massive fireworks explosion devastated a neighborhood in the Dutch city of Enschede.

And on February 1, 2008, twenty-two people were killed and more than 100 others were injured when an unlicensed fireworks factory exploded in the Turkish capital of Istanbul.

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