Blast kills 11 in E China residence

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-11 20:07

DANYANG, Jiangsu -- Eleven people were killed and 20 injured after a blast ripped through a residence rented by workers on the Nanjing-Shanghai intercity railway Wednesday.

An initial investigation showed that leftover aluminum powder, the amount of which was still unknown, ignited at about at 1:45 am, causing the building to collapse, said Xiao Quan, spokesman of the Jiangsu Provincial Government.

The building was used as a factory to process aluminum powder a couple of years ago. Investigators did not say how the powder exploded.

All the occupants of the building in Huiji Village of Danyang City, Jiangsu, were workers with the China Railways No. 24 Bureau.

Lu Zongxian, one of the survivors, said 44 workers had been living in the building. Some of them were sent by the supervisor to unload some industrial materials at the time of the accident and were not present at the time of the explosion..

The 20 injured are hospitalized and in stable condition.

Debris at the site had been cleared up as of 4 pm Wednesday.

Investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing.

Construction of the 300 km-long intercity railway started on July 1 and is expected to open to traffic in two years.

The rail is funded by an investment of 39.45 billion yuan ($5.76 billion) from the Ministry of Railway and the governments of Jiangsu and Shanghai. It will link Shanghai to Nanjing and a number of key cities, is expected to carry at least 30 million passengers a year at speeds of up to 250 km per hour.