A chemical factory in a village in eastern Shandong province exploded on Saturday night, injuring nine people, local media and police reported. The blast shattered windows of houses less than a kilometre away. The explosion occurred at about 8.50pm at a chemical plant owned by Ruixing Chemical in Dongfu village near Zibo city, the Qilu Evening News reported on Weibo. Zibo city police said nine people were injured. The incident occurred just 10 days after a series of blasts at a chemicals factory in Tianjin, 120km east of Beijing, resulted in 121 casualties, including 67 dead firefighters and 54 people still unaccounted for. In Dongfu on Saturday, a villager said he saw a huge fireball from his backyard and heard two explosions at around 9pm. Another villager said the chemical plant had just gone into production and was still hiring workers. Six teams of firefighters and 17 fire trucks had been sent to the blast site, the News said. Local media reported that the shock of the blast was felt at least 5km away. The fire had been brought under control by 10.40pm. Authorities were investigating the cause of the blast.
