Huangmao -- China
40 dead in Chinese fireworks blast

Latest reports from China say more than 40 people died in Sunday's huge explosion at a fireworks factory in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

According to local media, at least 34 more bodies have been found by rescue workers, with many people still missing.

The official Xinhua news agency is still putting the number of dead at nine.

It is still not clear precisely what caused the explosions, which destroyed a warehouse and 10 workshops at the Panda Export Fireworks Company in the rural town of Huangmao - a centre of the fireworks industry.

Thousands of people are said to have fled the area for fear of further explosions.

Another explosion occurred in the same area in March, killing 42 people, most of them schoolchildren.

 

China fireworks blast kills 29, scores missing

Emergency workers wrenched 20 more bodies from the rubble of a levelled fireworks factory in China's eastern province of Jiangxi, bringing the reported death toll to 29 with scores still missing, state media said on Tuesday.

The rising toll came as Chinese Vice Premier Wu Bangguo called for more efforts to ensure safety in fireworks factories, coal mines and other workplaces in part to maintain social stability - a driving theme of the Communist Party ahead of a key leadership transition this autumn.

Some 200 workers were in the factory when the blast ripped through the warehouse of the Panda Export Fireworks Co in the town of Huangmao on Sunday, triggering a series of explosions that destroyed 10 workshops, the semi-official China News Service said.

State media had reported nine dead on Sunday, and the China News Service said 20 bodies were pulled from the rubble on Monday. Around 20 escaped and the rest were unaccounted for, it said.

State media reported several people living near the factory may have died as a result of the explosions but gave no specific details.

One woman was pulled out of the rubble alive after spending 24 hours buried in the ruins of the workshops, the official Xinhua news agency said on its Web site.

Huangmao officials and hospital staff declined to comment.

More than 10,000 residents living close to the factory, owned by a Hong Kong businessman, had been evacuated following the blast, the China News Service said.

STOCKPILE THREAT

At least 10 tonnes of explosives stored in an underground cave close to the factory for the past seven years still posed a threat, the China News Service quoted villagers as saying.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast, which could be heard 60 km (37 miles) away, but local media have blamed lax safety standards.

Xinhua quoted Vice Premier Wu as saying late on Monday that improving work safety was a key goal of the government in 2002 and that factories making explosives and firecrackers would be closed if they operated without a licence.

"Those who are responsible for industrial production accidents will be severely punished according to laws and regulations," he said.

China shut down more than 237,000 illegal factories and shops making or selling explosives or firecrackers in 2001, Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday.

China's leadership has stressed social stability in the run-up to the critical 16th Party Congress in the autumn, when President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and others are due to step down from their party posts.

The calls for safety come as production of fireworks is being stepped up before the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls in early February in 2002.

A Chinese invention, fireworks have traditionally played a key role in the Lunar New Year celebrations. The noisy explosions are said to frighten away evil spirits.

Huangmao is in Jiangxi province's Wanzai county, the site of an explosion at a school which killed at least 42 people, most of them children, in March 2001.

In the March incident, local residents said schoolchildren were forced to assemble fireworks, but the government blamed the incident on a lone madman who ignited bags of explosives.

Premier Zhu apologised on live television for the school explosion, but said there was no evidence pupils were making fireworks.

 

Villagers dispute China fireworks blast toll

Police and firemen combed the rubble on Thursday for victims from a deadly blast that flattened a fireworks factory in eastern China, as officials refused to disclose the latest death toll, local reporters said.

They said villagers had reported seeing at least 34 corpses pulled from the site of Sunday's explosion at the Panda Export Fireworks Co in rural Huangmao, Jiangxi province.

But state media, some of which had earlier reported up to 34 killed in the blast, on Thursday put the death toll at 14.

"The local officials refuse to give us a figure," said a reporter in Liuyang city, Hunan province, 60 km (37 miles) from Huangmao.

"But the villagers have a sense of justice. They say the figures are higher than official reports," he told Reuters.

A worker packing fireworks with too much force accidentally triggered the deadly series of blasts, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Wednesday citing the results of a preliminary investigation.

Investigators sent by the State Economic and Trade Commission had arrived at the scene earlier this week amid calls for the central government intervention from local villagers, a newspaper editor in Liuyang said.

She said the site, cordoned off by police because of what they what they said was the threat of further explosions, was now safe.

"But it's still difficult to report anything. The site's been completely blocked off," she told Reuters.

Huangmao is located in Jiangxi province's Wanzai county, the site of an explosion in March 2001 at a school that killed at least 42 people, most of them children.

Earlier this week, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Bangguo was quoted by state media as saying that improving work safety was a key goal of the government in 2002 and that unlicensed factories making explosives and firecrackers would be closed.

On Tuesday, the semi-official China News Service said 20 bodies had been pulled from the rubble and more than 10,000 residents living close to the factory - owned by a Hong Kong businessman - had been evacuated following the blast.

State media had also said the death toll could rise since the factory was operating at full capacity with as many as 200 workers at the time of the blast.

But on Thursday, the China News Service stuck to an official Xinhua toll of 14 dead and 61 injured - as did the Beijing Evening News, which a day before reported 34 bodies had been recovered.

It was not clear why they rolled back the death toll.

But state media were ordered to use only Xinhua reports of major accidents or disasters in the wake of a fatal tin mine accident and cover-up in south-western China last summer, which spurred a debate on the role of the press.

 

Woman dies in fireworks blast

In the aftermath of the deadly explosion at the Panda Export Fireworks Co., some villagers question the official account that Pan Xiaohua blew up the factory by packing the explosives "too forcefully."

According to relatives, the 35-year-old mother of two was not packing smaller backyard fireworks.

Instead, she was assembling the more powerful pyrotechnics used in public displays.Critics of the industry suspect that lax management and improper use of chemicals contributed to the blast.

The dead woman's dilapidated hut sits about a five-minute walk from the blast site.The explosion sent tiles flying from its roof and rocks falling from the sky. Her father was hit on the face and back.

The family dog, which was nursing five puppies, was struck on the mouth and leg.

 

Security high after China fireworks blast kills 34

Local officials have cordoned off the area of a deadly explosion at a fireworks factory in eastern China amid calls by villagers for a central government investigation, a local journalist said on Wednesday.

A series of explosions on Sunday ripped through the Panda Export Fireworks Co in rural Huangmao, Jiangxi province, and left scores missing and the threat of further explosions, state media have reported.

The Beijing Evening News newspaper reported that 34 bodies had been found and said rescue workers were frantically digging through rubble on Wednesday morning.

Local authorities were not allowing reporters into the area, a Chinese journalist told Reuters by telephone earlier.

"Around three to four kilometres away from the scene, local police, armed police and officials from the county's propaganda office are not letting people any further," said the journalist who declined to be identified.

"They said it is very dangerous at the scene," he said.

The officials said there was still the threat of another explosion, but did not specify what could spark it, he said.

Villagers were quoted on Tuesday by the semi-official China News Service as saying at least 10 tonnes of explosives stored in an underground cave close to the factory still posed a threat.

More than 10,000 residents living close to the factory - owned by a Hong Kong businessman - had been evacuated following the blast, the news agency said on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the local journalist said many of them carried valuables and blankets at their sides and were sleeping on the street in Liuyang city in neighbouring Hunan province.

CALLS FOR AN INVESTIGATION

Some 200 workers were in the factory at the time of the blast and several people living nearby may have died as a result of the explosions, state media have reported.

More than 10 children were injured in a rush to evacuate a primary school five km (three miles) away, the journalist said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast, which could be heard 60 km (37 miles) away, but local media has blamed lax safety standards.

Villagers asked newspapers to call for a central government investigation of the accident, the journalist said.

"Local residents are strongly demanding that the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party send an investigative committee," he said.

Huangmao is located in Jiangxi province's Wanzai county, the site of an explosion in March 2001 at a school which killed at least 42 people, most of them children.

In the March incident, local residents said schoolchildren were forced to assemble fireworks, but the government blamed the incident on a lone madman who ignited bags of explosives.

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji apologised on live television for the school explosion, but said there was no evidence pupils were making fireworks.

Earlier this week, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Bangguo was quoted by state media as saying that improving work safety was a key goal of the government in 2002 and that factories making explosives and firecrackers would be closed if they operated without a licence.

 

China province to end seven centuries of fireworks

A string of disasters that killed scores of people over the past year has prompted China's eastern Jiangxi province to give up seven centuries of making fireworks, state media said on Wednesday.

Some 200,000 people employed in nearly 9,000 fireworks factories would need to find new jobs as the authorities weaned locals off a cottage industry that has been the lifeblood of the province for 700 years, reports said.

"We absolutely should not build our economy on those highly dangerous enterprises," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Jiangxi party secretary Meng Jianzhu as saying.

The ambitious pledge followed last month's deadly blast which levelled the Panda Export Fireworks Co in the rural town of Huangmao in Wanzai county, killing at least 21 according to some media reports amid controversy over the death toll and an alleged cover up.

Authorities sacked the party boss and top official from Wanzai county after the explosion, and now plan to shut all fireworks operations in the county within the year.

Impoverished and landlocked, Jiangxi hit the headlines last March after a blast at a school. That explosion, which killed 42 people most of whom were children, was blamed by Chinese officials on a lone madman.

Villagers said children had been forced to assemble fireworks in classrooms, and Premier Zhu Rongji personally apologised after the explosion.

The governor of Jiangxi resigned and the party secretary was removed from his post not long after the March blast, although state media made no connection to the explosion.

A separate blast at a factory in Jiangxi's Pinxiang county on Monday morning killed five people, the Beijing Evening News newspaper reported on Wednesday.

ILLEGAL OPERATIONS

It was unclear how effective the provincial ban would be, and details on how the plan would be managed were scant.

Officials offered no immediate alternatives to replace an industry which Xinhua said generates annual production worth 1.45 billion yuan ($175 million) and 350 million yuan in tax revenues.

While 200,000 are directly employed by the fireworks industry, thousands more poor villagers assemble firecrackers in their homes to boost measly incomes.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Bangguo said in late December that improving work safety was a key goal in 2002 and unlicensed factories making explosives and firecrackers would be closed.

Enforcement was likely to be difficult. China has ordered blanket shutdowns of factories and mines after deadly accidents, but many have been known to continue operations illegally.

A Jiangsu province coal mine, at which an explosion killed 92 miners in July, was told to halt production a month earlier but had continued to operate illegally, state media said.

Unemployment is also a prime concern of the government as state firms lay off workers amid restructuring and hundreds of millions of farmers feel the heat of foreign competition with the country's recent entry into the World Trade Organisation.

Accidents at fireworks factories typically spike ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls in February this year.

A Chinese invention, fireworks have traditionally played a key role in the celebrations as the noisy explosions are said to frighten away evil spirits.

China shut down more than 237,000 illegal factories and shops making or selling explosives or firecrackers in 2001, Xinhua has said.