Explosives blast highway, 4 dead
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Three men abandoned their truck on a major highway early Saturday and ran for their lives, afraid that their cargo was going to explode.
On their truck was five metric tons of gunpowder for manufacturing fireworks, and the driver had spotted a growing fire at the back of the truck seconds earlier.
Ten minutes later, at about 12:20 am, an explosion ripped through the air, waking up sleeping residents within a 40-km radius.
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A truck carrying chili peppers lies toppled by the highway explosion in Hubei province on Saturday. |
The truck was in shreds, with parts of it found 300 m away. The explosion left a crater of more than 100 sq m at the epicenter and cracks of up to 70 cm wide on the surface of the road nearby.
The blast that took place near the city of Xiaogan in Hubei province killed four people immediately and injured six on the highway, including one seriously wounded, according to an unnamed spokesman for the Xiaogan municipal government.
The explosion also damaged more than 300 houses in 10 nearby villages and injured at least 29 villagers, local officials said. The villagers, including one pregnant woman, have been hospitalized.
"My husband and I were sleeping when the door to our bedroom bounced onto the bed and crashed on my husband's legs," said a woman surnamed Tang, from the village of Yuegang, at the First People's Hospital in Xiaogan.
"We thought it was an earthquake."
Despite being in pain, Tang and her husband rushed out of their home and found that the highway 200 m away from their house was ablaze.
Her husband's leg was broken, Tang said.
Zhang Pingyuan, the owner of the gunpowder, and two drivers, Liu Oushan and Wu Yueping, have been detained on suspicion of perpetration with dangerous items, local police said.
The cause of the accident is being investigated. Police suspect that the gunpowder spontaneously ignited. Gunpowder can start to burn spontaneously if it is not kept dry.
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