On Monday hazardous materials were removed by industrial safety officials from a chemical plant in east China where 22 people died in an explosion last week. 

 

Seventeen full drums of chlorine, one which was half full and six empty containers were taken away from the blast site in Sheyang County of Jiangsu Province to a nearby plant for storage.

 

A chemical reactor vessel containing flammable material was also treated. The clean-up should remove all dangers from the site, said officials. Air and water tests around the plant show no signs of contamination from the accident.

 

Officials said preliminary investigations suggested the cause of the blast was either worker error or a problem inside the reactor although there was no evidence to indicate what had actually happened.

 

Around 8:45 AM on Friday the reactor exploded during a test run at the Fuyuan Chemical Co. Ltd., a Sino-German joint venture, in Linhai Township of Sheyang County. The plant, which had not begun production, was to produce fluoro-benzene for industrial use.

 

Seventy-one people were inside the plant when the blast destroyed two workshops and killed 22 people and injured 28. Twenty-one workers escaped uninjured. The incident forced the temporary evacuation of more than 7,000 local residents who have since returned to their homes.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2006)