The toll from an explosion that ripped through a chemical plant in eastern China rose on Saturday to at least 16 dead and 29 wounded, state media said.
Three people were also missing since the blast on Friday morning at the Yancheng Fuyuan Chemical Co. site, a joint Chinese and German venture in Jiangsu province's Sheyang county, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Preliminary investigations suggested that workers at the plant, which had yet to begin production, were mainly to blame for the accident, Xinhua said.
Thousands of local residents who were evacuated on Friday amid concerns over the release of toxic gas had now returned to their homes after being given the all-clear by environmental protection authorities, the report said.
Fatal industrial accidents are a frequent occurrence in China, caused partly because the economic boom has forced production to go into overdrive.
A total of 15,396 people died in 12,800 industrial, mining and commercial enterprise accidents in 2005, according to government figures.
