Authorities handling blast site in Hebei apologize to media

Local authorities in Sanhe, Hebei province, apologized to the media for forcing them out of the site of an explosion on Wednesday that killed 7 and injured 27 others, according to a statement published on Thursday morning by the city's command headquarters for the handling of the incident.

The statement especially mentioned that several reporters with China Media Group were forced out of the site during their interviews.

"Due to the poor communication skills and the use of rough methods by our on-site personnel, misunderstandings and public questioning arose from their conducts, leading to adverse social effects," the statement said, adding "for which we feel deeply responsible and extend our apologies to journalists".

On Wednesday night, a video clip showed two or three CMG reporters being pushed away during their interviews by a dozen of male personnel at the incident site.

Following the matter, the All-China Journalists Association published an article on its official WeChat account, voicing that journalists have the right to conduct interviews.

The article went viral online on Wednesday night and got reposted by many netizens, especially by media workers.

"During the initial stages of the rescue, on-site personnel had maintained good interaction with media reporters," the official statement of Sanhe said.

But as the rescue work progressed, the experts with the command headquarters conducted professional assessments and discovered that there were still ongoing risks of natural gas leakage at the scene, advising that all non-rescue personnel be evacuated beyond the cordon to prevent secondary disasters.

During this process, journalists who persisted in reporting from the scene were forcibly led out of the site, the statement added.

"In our future work, we will learn from this experience, further improve relevant mechanisms and actively establish communication platforms with the media," the statement said.

It added that local authorities will genuinely safeguard the rights of journalists to conduct interviews, provide more convenience, and respond promptly to social concerns. "We welcome media friends to supervise our work."

The explosion that drew media to Sanhe occurred at 7:54 am on Wednesday in the town of Yanjiao, suspected to be caused by a gas leak at a shop, according to another statement by the city's emergency management bureau on Thursday.

As of early morning on Thursday, the site had been basically cleaned up. All the injured were sent to hospital and their injuries were not life-threatening. Among them, 14 have been discharged.

An investigation is underway about the cause of the explosion.