An explosion in a fireworks factory yesterday killed at least three people and injured more than 24 in Fujian province, three days after a similar accident left 29 dead and 91 injured in Hebei province.
Blasts tore apart the Jingxi Fireworks Factory at 8.05am, a spokesman with the Fuzhou municipal government said.
Three people, including a four-year-old girl, were confirmed dead. The spokesman said eight people rescued from the rubble were being treated at hospitals in Fuzhou, the provincial capital.
Doctors at the emergency centre at Fujian Provincial Hospital said they had admitted victims in critical condition.
The government spokesman said the factory had 24 workers. Thirteen of them were still missing yesterday afternoon.
He said the blasts were so powerful that peasants farming nearby were wounded by shrapnel. Twenty-four people with minor injuries, mostly residents hurt outside the factory, were admitted to Minhou Hospital, the China News Service said.
All factory buildings were destroyed, the spokesman said, adding that houses up to 500 metres away suffered damage such as broken windows.
'I was woken up by a massive bang,' said Chen Xifeng, 19, a high school student living less than 1km away from the factory.
'The smoke rose up like a mushroom cloud. Then I heard children crying and dogs barking.'
Ms Chen said she feared the casualty figure could be higher than initial indications. 'A dozen people were still buried. Even those dug out may not all survive.'
The Fuzhou government suspended all firework production in the city and launched a safety inspection, the government spokesman said.
The Jingxi Fireworks Factory was a private business approved by the provincial public security department in 2001. The spokesman said it had 'corrected mistakes' in its operations after it was declared hazardous by the authorities.
Nineteen of its 24 employees were migrant workers from Hunan province, he said.