At least 12 people were killed when a massive explosion ripped through a village in southeastern China's Yunnan province, state media said Wednesday.
Two people are missing and 43 were injured in the blast late Monday in Mile county's Xinche village which police suspect was caused by an 18-ton truckload of ammonium nitrate, the Yunnan daily Shenghuo Xinbao and Xinhua news agency reported.
The explosion, which left a crater 5.6 meters (18 feet) deep and 18.5 meters wide, was heard several miles away. It destroyed 17 homes and damaged another 49, the paper said.
Vehicle parts, some of them melted from the intense heat of the blast, were found around the crater, it said.
More than 320 villagers were left homeless, according to Xinhua. They have been placed in temporary shelters and provided with quilts and other necessities.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation.
Ammonium nitrate is a common fertilizer, but when mixed with diesel or kerosene can be used as a powerful explosive. Such a mixture was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in the United States that killed 168 people.
Xinche villager Li Hongwen was known to be transporting 18 tons of the chemical to a local fertilizer company, the paper said. It gave no other details.
