Search efforts continue at the site of a chemical plant explosion as fate of six missing unknown

Firefighters extinguish fires at the explosion site of a chemical plant in Gaomi, in east China’s Shandong Province, Tuesday

Six people remained missing and search and rescue efforts continued yesterday after an explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China shook nearby buildings, killing at least five people and injuring 19.

The blast on Tuesday, occurring in an industrial park in the city of Weifang, in Shandong province, knocked out windows at nearby buildings and spewed a thick plume of white smoke, according to videos shared on social media. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.

Zhang Liyou, who runs a restaurant about 1 kilometer away from the explosion site, was serving lunch when the blast occurred, shattering the restaurant’s windows and causing part of its ceiling paneling to collapse.

Fortunately, neither him nor the handful of diners were harmed, he told The Associated Press.

The explosion occurred at a plant owned by Gaomi Youdao Chemical Co., a producer of pesticides and chemicals for medical use with more than 500 employees, according to corporate registration records.

Local fire officials sent more than 230 personnel to the scene, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The owner of another restaurant, located more than 3 kilometers away from the explosion site, said she felt a shake akin to a small earthquake. Some cracks formed in the double-glazed windows of the restaurant, but otherwise, there was no substantial damage, said Zhang, who only wanted to give her surname.

A student at a school about one kilometer away from the plant told state-run news site The Paper that he heard an explosion and saw dirt-yellow smoke, tainted with redness, rising from the plant. He said there was a funny smell, and all students were given masks and told not to remove them.

A staffer at the local environment bureau told The Paper that a team was dispatched to the scene to monitor potential pollution but had yet to report back.

The blast came less than two weeks after the National Ministry of Emergency Management held a workshop on preventing and controlling risks in the chemical industry, as Beijing urged officials at chemical industrial parks to boost their capabilities in “managing hazardous chemicals.”

Last year, the chemical plant was cited for “safety risks” at least twice, but in September it was praised by the Weifang Emergency Management Bureau for relying on party members to effectively manage workplace risks.

Specifically, party members at Gaomi Youdao identified more than 800 safety hazards in the first eight months of 2024 and rectified all of them, the bureau said.

Workplace safety has improved over the years in China but remains a stubborn problem. The National Ministry of Emergency Management recorded 21,800 incidents and 19,600 deaths in 2024.

A warehouse complex storing large amounts of hazardous chemicals caught fire and exploded in Tianjin in 2015, leaving 173 dead or missing.

In 2019, 78 people were killed in a blast at a chemical plant in Yancheng in China’s eastern coastal province of Jiangsu. MDT/AP