Police authorities in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said more people are feared dead in Thursday's serial explosions and they expect to find more bodies in the massive excavation starting Friday morning.

Two consecutive detonator explosions were reported in a residential area of Jining district in Ulanqab at around 11:30 AM Thursday. Five people were confirmed dead and eight others injured.

Rescue work lasted for three hours on Thursday and was halted at 3:00 PM for fear of further explosions.

Local authorities continued the operation Friday morning.

At least three injured residents are still in critical condition, doctors and family members said.

Sun Cunhe, 61, was seriously injured in the lungs and suffered fractures in the ribs when he was dug out of the ruins at 2:00 PM. He's being treated at the No. 2 Hospital of Ulanqab.

Two other critical cases are being treated at the Ulanqab Central Hospital for serious brain damage and bone fractures.

Local police said three out of the five people killed were locals and the other two were yet to be identified.

"They were probably tenants, as the house where the explosion occurred had been rented to some migrants from the south," said a man who gave only his family name Zhi. "We saw four or five people running out of the house seconds before the first blast went off." Zhi's father was hit in the right eye by pieces of broken tiles when he was watching.

The blasts flattened 10 rooms in four buildings in the area and dozens of people were evacuated.

Police are still investigating the case and have not ruled out the likelihood for murder with self-made detonators.

Illegal production of detonators often leads to fatal accidents in China. Early this month, five people were killed and another injured in an explosion in an illegal workshop for electronic detonators in north China's Hebei Province.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2006)