Shandong Explosion Kills at Least Nine

At least nine people are reported dead in an explosion at Shandong Tianbao Chemical Industry Corporation in eastern China on Oct. 21. The cause is under investigation.

According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, the blast occurred at around 8:20 a.m. local time.

Two additional people are thought to have been injured, one critically, in the accident at the facility believed to produce chemicals for the plastics and mining industries.

The identities of the nine killed were being determined through DNA tests.

The Shandong explosion is the latest in a series of events at Chinese chemical plants. In August, 173 people, many of them firefighters, were killed in a chemical explosion in the port of Tianjin involving 700 t of highly toxic sodium cyanide.

Last week, another large blast and fire was reported at Tianjin, this time without any fatalities.