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William Zheng

An explosion at an automotive parts factory in eastern China on Sunday morning has left seven people dead and five others injured, according to local reports.
The blast happened at 7.12am in an outdoor area of the premises of Kunshan Waffer Technology in the Kunshan bonded zone in Jiangsu province, the local government said.
According to reports, the source of the explosion was a container in a yard used for storing scrap metal, and the fire spread to nearby production facilities.
The fire was put out by noon, the Kunshan government said. Five people were taken to hospital with injuries, one of them in critical condition.
An investigation has been launched and hundreds of residents and factory workers have been evacuated from the area.

Videos apparently taken at the explosion site showing the factory engulfed in thick smoke have been circulating on Chinese social media.
“There’s heaps of debris from the blast raining down [everywhere],” one person says in footage said to have been taken at the scene soon after the explosion.
The industrial accident is the second in Jiangsu in just 10 days. On March 21, an explosion at the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical plant in the city of Yancheng left at least 78 people dead and injured more than 600.
An investigation team from the State Council, China’s cabinet, made a preliminary conclusion on the nature of the Yancheng accident last week, blaming local officials who were “ignorant of their work” for allowing the company to continue its operations despite multiple safety violations. Executives from the plant have been taken into police custody.
Chinese man arrested for spreading rumours of firefighter fatalities in Jiangsu chemical factory blast blaze
There have been other deadly blasts in Kunshan, an industrial city near Shanghai. In August 2014, an explosion at an auto parts factory claimed 146 lives and injured 114 others. The local work safety authority said the factory, Zhongrong Metal Production, had ignored several warnings about the potential for an explosion. Following the blast, 14 company executives and local government officials were jailed for between three and seven years, while 35 other officials were disciplined and demoted.


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China society

7 killed, 5 hurt in blast at auto parts factory in eastern China

The blast happened at the Kunshan Waffer Technology factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu. Photo: Handout

=== PHOTO CAPTURED FROM WEIBO === a video capture from Weibo shows huge smoke during the fire at the Handing Precision Metal Co in the Jiangsu Kunshan Comprehensive Protective Tariff Zone. Photo: WEIBO.

Explosions and landslides – the worst industrial accidents in China since 2014

The aftermath of the 2015 Tianjin blast that killed 173 people, many of whom were firefighters. Photo: EPA

(161124) -- YICHUN, Nov. 24, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Aerial photo taken on Nov. 24, 2016 shows the accident site at the Fengcheng power plant in Yichun City, east China's Jiangxi Province. Sixty-seven people have been confirmed dead and another missing as a platform of a power plant's cooling tower under construction collapsed in Jiangxi Thursday, rescuers said. (Xinhua/Wan Xiang) (zyd)

Rescue workers use excavator to dig and search among the debris of destroyed buildings after a landslide hit an industrial park in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. 22DEC15 SCMP/ Edward Wong

A damaged fire truck is seen at the site of the massive explosions in Tianjin on August 13, 2015. Enormous explosions in a major Chinese port city killed at least 44 people and injured more than 500, state media reported on August 13, leaving a devastated industrial landscape of incinerated cars, toppled shipping containers and burnt-out buildings. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO

(161101) -- CHONGQING, Nov. 1, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers work at Jinshangou Coal Mine in Yongchuan District of Chongqing, southwest China, Nov. 1, 2016. Rescuers are working around the clock to search for 20 miners who have remained trapped in a colliery in Chongqing for nearly 24 hours following a gas explosion. Thirteen miners have been confirmed dead. (Xinhua/Tang Yi) (wyo)

Death toll from China chemical plant blast rises to 78

Firefighters work on the rubble of a pesticide plant owned by Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical following an explosion in Xiangshui county, Yancheng, Jiangsu province, last week. Photo: Reuters

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Accident happened in an outdoor area of plant in Kunshan, Jiangsu, authorities say
Seventy-eight people lost their lives in a chemical explosion in the same province just 10 days ago


Accident happened in an outdoor area of plant in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, where 78 people died in a chemical explosion 10 days ago.


7 killed, 5 hurt in blast at auto parts factory in eastern China

Accident happened in an outdoor area of plant in Kunshan, Jiangsu, authorities say Seventy-eight people lost their lives in a chemical explosion in the same province just 10 days ago

Accident happened in an outdoor area of plant in Kunshan, Jiangsu, authorities say

Seventy-eight people lost their lives in a chemical explosion in the same province just 10 days ago