International

China industrial park explosion kills 19

 

An explosion at an industrial park in China's Sichuan province has left 19 people dead and 12 others injured, according to state news agency Xinhua.

In a statement quoted by Reuters, the authorities in Jiang'an county said the blast happened at a chemical plant run by Yibin Hengda Technology.

Photos on Chinese social media showed a huge fire and plumes of smoke rising from the facility.

It is not clear what caused the explosion.

It follows previous high-profile disasters at chemical plants in China.

In 2015, 173 people died in an explosion in a chemical warehouse in the north-eastern port city of Tianjin.