Of the 21 injured, five were seriously injured in the blast, which occurred at around 11:40 am Saturday, the first day of the Spring Festival, at a shop in Taiping town in Luoding city in southern China's Guangdong Province.

The blast triggered a chain reaction, destroying some crowded nearby shops during a peak shopping period, said a local official.

The injured have been transported to local hospitals, and the cause of the blast is still under investigation, according to the local government.

China is the world's largest producer of fireworks, employing hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom work in rural areas in perilous conditions.

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2003)