Three people died and two were injured in an explosion in a fireworks factory in east China on Tuesday morning, the local work safety administration said.

The explosion took place at 10:25 a.m. in Sanbing Town, Chaohu City in Anhui Province. One person died at the scene and two others succumbed to their injuries in a local hospital. Two others sustained facial injuries but are out of danger, hospital sources said.

About 10 workshops in the area were destroyed.

Local work safety officials said that the owners of the plant had been killed in the accident. The cause of the blast remains under investigation.

Sanbing Town is the fireworks production center of Anhui Province. But safety in the industry has been a major concern, with 10 blasts there since 2005. Less than a month ago, an explosion killed one person and injured another.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)