March 31 (UPI) — An explosion at an automotive parts factory in eastern China on Sunday morning killed seven people and injured five others — the second blast in a little more than a week in the nation’s province.
In Jiangsu province, the explosion occurred at 7:12 a.m. in the outdoor area of Kunshan Waffer Technology in the Kunshan bonded zone, the local government said, according to Bloomberg News. Hundreds of residents and factory workers were evacuated from the area.
By noon, the fire was extinguished, the South China Morning Post reported.
A container of scrap metal burst into flames and set a workshop on fire in a yard used for storing the material.
Among those injured, five people were taken to hospital with one in critical condition.
Kushan is the main production plant for Taiwan-headquartered Waffler, which mainly serves the light metal processing and manufacturing fields, including magesium alloy.
Ten days earlier, an explosion at chemical plant in Chenjiagang, Jiangsu province, killed dozens. The official Xinhua News Agency updated the death toll to 78 on Monday. People were taken into custody over the incident.
In 2015, a massive explosion in 2015 at a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin killed 173 people. And a blast in 2014 at an auto parts plant in Suzhou, also in Jiangsu, killed 146 and injured more than 600.
