9 injured in explosion at China chemical factory

A total of 150 firefighters from the city’s fire brigade are battling the blaze.

The paper said that the fire had been brought under control by late on Saturday night.

According to Xinhua, the police in Huantai county in Shandong province said that there were no fatalities, but nine people were injured and taken to the hospital.

Shandong Runxing, a unit of Runxing Group, produces chemicals such as adiponitrile, a colorless liquid that can burn when encountering fire and can give off toxic fumes after decomposing on heating or burning, Xinhua said.

It was not instantly clear what chemical compounds have been on the plant on the time of the incident.

This explosion in eastern China comes after two huge blasts ripped through a warehouse storing unsafe chemicals in Tianjin, the world’s 10th-largest port, on August. 12 killing at least 121 people.

Environmental authorities detected no contamination from the blast, according to Xinhua. At least 116 people were killed.

While the cause of the Tianjin blasts is still unknown, executives of the company that owns the warehouse at the center of the explosions have admitted to using their political connections to skirt safety regulations that prohibit the storage of hazardous chemicals too close to residential areas.

The disaster raised concerns about the effectiveness of China’s regulatory bodies and their ability to oversee industries in which they or officials might have vested interests.