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The death toll from an explosion that shook a chemical factory in Dongyin, Shandong province on Monday night has climbed to five, according to recent media reports.
The blast ripped through the Shandong Binyuan Chemical Co. plant in the Diaokou township of Lijin county at 11:22 p.m. and the fire was extinguished around five hours later. Xinhua said that waste water from the chemical plant has been contained and the cause of the incident is still under investigation.
Images show the extent of the destruction left in the wake of the explosion.
The site of the blast was around 275 kilometers south of Tianjin, where two large explosions at a warehouse storing hazardous materials left 158 people dead. The Binhai district blast made headlines worldwide and drew attention to lax safety regulations that have resulted in similar disasters across the country.
Just weeks ago, an explosion rocked chemical plant in Shandong province, leaving one person dead.
More than a dozen blasts killed at least seven people in southern China on Wednesday barely an hour before workers went home for one of the biggest holidays on the Chinese calendar.
The “massive” explosions came from package bombs sent to 13 public places, including a hospital, local government office, shopping mall, prison, vegetable market, disease control centre and supermarket, state media reported.
A vehicle is seen damaged after explosions hit Liucheng county, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, September 30, 2015. A series of package bombs exploded on Wednesday in China's southwestern city of Liuzhou, killing at least three people, state television said, publishing images of a collapsed building, a plume of smoke and streets strewn with rubble.
Local police quickly said terrorism was not to blame, calling it a “criminal” matter and saying they had a 33-year-old suspect, surnamed Wei.
But the co-ordinated attacks, which came just before 5 p.m. and the start of the Oct. 1 National Day holidays, injured at least 50 and left wide-scale destruction.
Photos published online showed a cloud of smoke rising into the air, a half-collapsed building, a vehicle thrust onto its side in a rubble-filled street and victims covered in blood and dirt being aided by people on the streets.
Most of the explosions hit Liucheng, a county in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region located 300 kilometres northeast of the border with Vietnam. One also hit nearby Liuzhuo, a historic city of four million frequented by tourists, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Those near the blasts posted messages on social media about their tremendous force. One person described a bomb on the ground floor of a building that destroyed the first-floor stairwell and sent a bicycle flying 40 to 50 metres. “The blast hit everywhere – a bus stop, hospital, even the government building,” the person wrote. “So frightened.”
Those near the attack labelled it an act of terror.
“I always thought terrorists or bombs were very far away from me, but this happened right next to me!” another person wrote on social media. “Until that moment I didn’t understand that danger is really everywhere.”
Another added: “Should take a knife to kill whoever did it.”
China has in recent years grappled with a series of deadly attacks, in some cases blaming terrorist extremists, in others local criminals or people acting out of desperation.
Car, knife and bomb attacks have hit tourist sites, train stations and vegetable markets in Beijing, the southern city of Kunming and Urumqi, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang region. China has blamed people associated with a separatist movement in Xinjiang. That region has seen violent tensions between authorities and the Uyghurs, a largely Muslim minority group, and China has raised concern about ties between Uyghur extremists and other international terror groups.
But local concerns have also propelled violence. In 2013, a series of bombs killed one and injured eight others outside the local Communist government office in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province. That blast littered streets with nails and metal pellets. Police later arrested a 41-year-old ex-convict, and said they had discovered homemade bombs at his home, although observers questioned the speed of the arrest.
Chinese cities regularly experience protests from groups with all sorts of grievances, including unpaid workers, members of minorities who feel they have been mistreated and people concerned about forced relocations and industrial development near residential areas.
Bombs hidden in courier parcels delivered to various locations across a county in Guangxi province exploded yesterday, killing at least seven and injuring dozens ahead of the seven-day National Day holiday.
The blasts occurred at the seat of Liucheng county, in the city of Liuzhou, and its surrounding areas, with the first bang heard at around 3.50pm, state media Xinhua reported. Five people died at the scene.
Local police said they had launched a criminal investigation and identified a 33-year-old male suspect, surnamed Wei, from Dapu township. The blasts were triggered by explosive devices hidden in express delivery packages, police said.
Nanguo Zaobao reported that Wei had since been arrested.
There were at least 17 blasts, media reports said, with targets of attack including the Dapu township government office, supermarkets, malls, a hospital, prison, bus terminal, an animal husbandry staff dormitory and a centre for infectious disease and prevention.
Explosions also occurred in other areas around Liuzhou, the media said, citing the city's public security department.
More than 50 people were injured in the blasts and two people missing, but the authorities had ruled out a terrorist attack, China National Radio reported, citing police information.
On Dapu's Dongcheng Road - one of the blast sites - part of a building had collapsed. Nearby vehicles were also damaged.
"I was sitting in my shop when I heard a sudden loud bang. I was in shock … My hair was flying in the air from the shock waves," said Li Acheng, 30, owner of a fruit store 350 metres from the collapsed building.
"Some windows in my shop broke. I walked outside to see what had happened and was almost hit by a falling window from the third floor.
"I saw half of a building nearby collapse.
"We were all very shocked and thought it might be an act of terrorism. All shops were closed and the town is under curfew with police guarding every street … It was very scary with so many attacks in just over an hour."
Li and his family left the town for a nearby village, fearing further attacks.
Pictures online showed injured victims, damaged buildings, and wrecked vehicles.
A witness told Thepaper.cn that she heard sounds of explosions while shopping at a mall for electrical appliances.
She remained traumatised by the shock of the blasts even hours later, she told the online news portal, and ran to a nearby field beside a river bank, refusing to return home.
Speaking at a press conference, Liucheng county public security political commissar Cai Tianlai said a total of 60 suspicious courier parcels had since been identified after reports from members of the public.
The suspicious parcels were being guarded, pending processing by a bomb squad, according to China News Service.
Local authorities had activated their emergency response mechanism and the local safety administration had sent out an emergency alert, saying the series of explosions had been triggered by parcel bombs and warning the public not to open parcels, Nanguo Zaobao reported.
Second Massive Bomb Explosion Rocks Chinese City, Day After 17 Parcel Bomb Attacks Kill Seven http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-01/second-massive-bomb-explosion-rocks-chinese-city-day-after-17-parcel-bomb-attacks-ki
Yesterday, in the aftermath of the stunning report that 17 "massive" bomb explosions rocked Chinese city of Liuzhou, killing at least 7 and wounding at least 51, we asked if as a result of China's economic hard-landing and the surge in layoffs, the widespread popular unrest - which we suggested over the weekend is due for a comeback - has finally landed in China with tragic consequences, especially since the incident is clearly being treated as a criminal act.
We further noted that "if there is one thing China's politburo simply can not afford right now, is to layer public unrest and civil violence on top of an economy which is already in "hard-landing" move. Forget black - this would be the bloody swan that nobody could "possibly have seen coming."
Yesterday we got the first confirmation of this civil violence "bloody swan."
Less than 24 hours later, we got a second one, when earlier today another blast struck a sleepy area in the southern Chinese city of Liucheng, destroying a residential building.
According to the WSJ, it was unclear whether there were any casualties from Thursday’s explosion, but judging by the photos of the devastation which shows dramatic damage to a six-story building in Liucheng, it would be a miracle if nobody was injured.
Liucheng is a small county seat and is administratively part of the larger, nearby city of Liuzhou. In the wake of the explosions, post offices throughout Liuzhou are suspending delivery of packages until Oct. 3, Xinhua said. Authorities have also warned residents via text message against opening any suspicious parcels.
There was little more immediately available news:
A man answering the phone at a local courier-service company said that they had been temporarily ordered to cease operations and not told when they could resume. He said that police had warned locals not to trust strangers and hung up the phone.
Employees answering at the phone at the Liuzhou post office declined to comment. Phone calls to the local government’s information office rang unanswered.
The timing of the bomb attacks is hardly coincidental: "they come at a sensitive time as China kicks off its weeklong National Day holiday, with millions of people traveling. In the past, officials have sometimes played down or censored coverage of disasters, large accidents and other news over holidays, in part to damp a sense of public panic, according to media-monitoring groups."
Curiously, unlike on comparable previous occasions, China is not censoring the news of the two attacks in 24 hours, at least not on websites - it is intervening on social networks like Weibo:
Official news media largely featured coverage of the holiday, though most still placed news of the bombings prominently on websites. Social media, however, appeared to be attracting more scrutiny from authorities. Some posts on Weibo Corp. ’s Twitter-like service that questioned the authorities’ explanation of events and their decision to rule out terrorism were expunged, according to Free Weibo, a site that collects posts removed from Weibo."
Just as curious, is that today's explosion takes place even as the authorities claim to have apprehended the person responsible for yesterday's bombings: police already apprehended a suspect, identified only as a 33-year-old man named Wei, a native of Liucheng county, according to Xinhua. Nothing was revealed about the possible motives for the attack.
china is under seige & not one word from the "reality researcher" (allegedly) in china?
he must be "out of town" again on "international travel" :lol:
