Four held over China pipeline blast, toll hits 13 Beijing (AFP) July 29, 2010 Police have arrested four people in connection with a chemical pipeline explosion that rocked a city in eastern China, state media said Thursday, as the death toll rose to 13. More than 300 others were injured in the blast on Wednesday, which occurred on the grounds of an abandoned plastics factory in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, as workers were demolishing the facility. The explosion reportedly occurred when a pipeline carrying ethylene gas was damaged while workers using diggers were dismantling buildings and retrieving parts that could be resold, Xinhua news agency reported. The leaking gas was ignited when a nearby motorist started their car engine, according to the local work safety administration. Police have arrested three construction contractors and a factory official responsible for work safety at the site, Xinhua said. The powerful blast levelled or heavily damaged buildings within 100 metres (yards) and blew out windows or caused other damage to businesses and residences up to 300 metres away. People more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) away evacuated their buildings, thinking an earthquake had struck, reports said. Injury counts have varied widely in the state media reports, with the China News Service saying as many as 300 people were rushed to local hospitals for treatment, including 52 with serious injuries. Xinhua said 120 people remained in hospital, 14 of them in critical condition. Many hospitals had almost exhausted their blood stocks and local residents were rushing to mobile collection vehicles to donate blood, Xinhua said Wednesday. Power, water and gas supplies have been restored to thousands of homes in the area following the blast, Xinhua said. Deadly industrial accidents are routine in China, where basic safety provisions are often ignored. Two weeks ago, an oil pipeline exploded in the northeastern port city of Dalian, triggering a spectacular blaze that burned for an entire weekend and spilled about 1,500 tonnes of oil into the Yellow Sea off Liaoning province. The incident was one of China's worst-ever oil spills.
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