Dozens were killed in a factory fire in Anyang, China China

36 people have died and two are missing after a factory fire broke out in the center of the country Chinareported state media, citing local authorities.

The fire broke out at a factory in Anyang City, central Henan Province, on Monday afternoon, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday, without sharing further details.

State media said rescue services first received reports of a fire starting at 4.22pm, at Kaixinda Trading Co Ltd, in Wenfeng District, or ‘high-tech zone’, in the city of Anyang. “After receiving the alarm, the municipal fire rescue detachment immediately sent troops to the scene,” CCTV reported.

“Public security, emergency response, municipal administration and power supply units rushed to the scene at the same time to carry out emergency and rescue work,” she added, adding that the fire was extinguished at around 11 p.m.

In addition to the dead and missing, two are in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, CCTV reported.

Authorities said two “criminal suspects” had been detained in connection with the fire, but provided no further details.

Industrial accidents are common in China due to poor safety standards and corruption among officials charged with enforcing them.

In June, one person was killed and another injured in an explosion at a chemical plant in Shanghai. A fire at the Sinopec Shanghai petrochemical plant in the remote Jinshan district sent thick clouds of smoke over a vast industrial area, with three fires burning in separate locations.

Last year, a gas explosion killed 25 people and reduced several buildings to rubble in the central city of Xi’an.

In March 2019, an explosion at a chemical plant in Yancheng, located 260 kilometers (161 miles) from Shanghai, killed 78 people and destroyed homes within a radius of several kilometers.

Four years ago, a huge explosion in northern Tianjin at a chemical warehouse killed 165 people, one of China’s worst industrial accidents ever.

With AFP and Reuters