“China gas plant blast: death toll rises to 15 as three more bodies found”, 21 July 2019

Authorities in central China said… that the death toll from an explosion at a gas plant has risen to 15 with another 15 seriously injured... About 270 firefighters and rescuers have completed three rounds of search and rescue since the blast… in the city of Yima in Henan province, China’s emergency management ministry said.

The blast shattered windows 3km (1.9 miles) away and knocked off doors inside buildings, according to earlier state media reports.

Xinhua said the explosion happened in the air separation unit at a factory owned by Henan Coal Gas Group. All production at the plant has been halted, it said…

Local media showed amateur videos of a massive column of black smoke billowing from the factory and debris littering the roads. Other images showed the doors and windows of homes blown out and closed shops with dented metal fronts...

Deadly industrial accidents are common in China, where safety regulations are often poorly enforced.

On March 21, a blast at a chemical plant in Yancheng, east China’s Jiangsu province killed 78 people and injured hundreds... Authorities detained two dozen people in connection with the blast, which prompted the government to order a nationwide inspection of chemical firms.

A week later, seven people died following a blast at an electronics component manufacturer in the same province.

In November, 24 people were killed and 21 injured in a gas leak at a plant in the north Chinese city of Zhangjiakou, which will host the 2022 Winter Olympics…

In 2015, China suffered one of its worst industrial accidents when giant chemical blasts in the northern port city of Tianjin killed at least 165 people.