China chemical blast tolls nearing 50, President Xi Jinping orders rescue mission from Italy

President Xi Jinping on Friday directed all-out efforts to be carried out for the search and rescue missions in the aftermath of an industrial park explosion in eastern China that has killed at least 47 and seriously injured 90 people until Friday.
The death toll has been steadily increasing since the explosion ripped apart a chemical plant in the Xiangshui area of Jiangsu province on Thursday afternoon.
Xi, who is in Italy on Friday, demanded all-out efforts to search and rescue victims The explosion happened at about 2:48 p.m. on Thursday, following a fire that broke out in a factory located in a chemical industrial complex.
“A total of 640 people are receiving medical treatment in hospitals. Among them, 32 are still in critical conditions and 58 others sustain severe injuries,”
official news agency, Xinhua quoted the accident rescue headquarters as saying.
“Workers were trapped after buildings were knocked down by the shockwave, which also shattered windows of nearby residential houses. Witnesses said many workers were seen running out of the factory covered in blood after the blast,” the Xinhua report said.
A tremor said to have been triggered by the blast crossed the 2 mark on the earthquake scale.
The China Earthquake Networks Centre said on social media Thursday that an earthquake of 2.2 magnitude struck Lianyungang’s Guannan county – about 30 kilometers from the explosion site – also at 2:48 pm. The depth of the quake was listed as 0,” the report.
During the explosion, many windows of nearby schools were shattered.
A witness told the Beijing Youth Daily that he saw four people were hurt by a shattered window and sent to hospital.
Another witness surnamed Zhang said that the explosion was like an earthquake; he was sitting in the car when it occurred and his car shook.
President Xi said all-out efforts must be made to search those trapped, and the injured must be timely treated and relief work must be well done to maintain social stability.
“Meanwhile, environment monitoring and early warning should be strengthened to prevent environmental pollution as well as secondary disasters,” the Xinhua report said.
“Videos from the scene shared on Sina Weibo showed massive plumes of black smoke, with an enormous fireball rising over the site. Windows of nearby residential buildings were shattered by the initial blast,” the report said.
Thursday’s industrial accident is the worst to have hit China since August , 2015 when at least 163 people were killed, several hundreds injured in deadlychemical explosions in the city of Tianjin close to Beijing.
More than 17000 houses across seven communities were either destroyed or damaged within the area of impact of the Tianjin chemical blasts.