11 killed in fireworks factory blast in China

Beijing (ANTARA News) - Eleven people were killed and eight others
injured in a blast at a fireworks workshop in north China`s Shanxi
Province, local officials said.

The cause of Wednesday`s blast in Yangquan city and the number of men
at work at the time of the explosion was not immediately known, they
said.

The injured people are being treated at local hospitals, Xinhua news agency said quoting officials.

Only Tuesday, 13 people were killed in a blast at an illegal fireworks
workshop in Hunan Province in Central China. Two days before, five
children had lost their lives while playing in an abandoned firecracker
factory in China`s north.

Explosions in cracker workshops, mostly unlicensed, occur quite
commonly in China, where authorities have also launched a crackdown in
recent weeks against illegal firecracker makers, PTI reported.(*) END