An explosion occurred at Dongying industrial zone in Shandong Province on Monday night, less than a month after massive chemical explosions in Tianjin took at least 145 lives, raising concerns about the safety of industrial zones in China.
According to the official Twitter account of People’s Daily, the explosion took place at around 11:25pm on Monday in Lijin, Dongying.
Breaking: A blast seen and heard in a chemical industry zone in Lijin, Dongying City of Shandong around 23:25 Mon. pic.twitter.com/Yi29nJXEuX
— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) August 31, 2015
Pictures show a massive fireball at an area that is reportedly an industrial zone. So far, no officials could be reached for comment. It is still unclear whether there were any casualties or what the cause of the explosion was.
The incident came less than a month after powerful chemical blasts tore through a logistics port in Tianjin on August 12, killing and injuring hundreds.
The Tianjin explosion raised questions about the storage of industrial chemicals, after a residential complex which was located just 600 metres from a chemical storage warehouse at the centre of the blasts was badly damaged, contravening a 2001 government regulation to keep homes and chemical storage facilities apart. Eleven officials and 12 company executives have been arrested as the nation’s highest level of prosecutors stepped in to investigate the cause of the explosions and why chemical warehouses were allowed to be built just a few hundred metres away from homes.
Earlier last week, there was another chemical blast in Shandong, killing one and injuring nine.
