3 Chinese workers injured in explosion in Serbia

BELGRADE - Three Chinese workers of China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) were injured on Thursday afternoon when two containers of technical gas for welding exploded in town of Kostolac, 90 kilometers east of the Serbian capital of Belgrade at a thermal power plant construction site, management of the plant confirmed in a press release.

The accident took place at a construction site where CMEC is working on reconstruction of a thermal power plant, where these workers were welding smoke pipes at the plant for desulphurization, Serbian national broadcaster RTS reported.

The explosion reportedly followed by a small fire, resulting in minor skin burns of two workers who were taken to a local hospital in the nearby city of Pozarevac, while the third worker got heavy burns and was hospitalized at the Institute for Skin Burns in Belgrade.

The fire was extinguished by the local brigade, and eight more workers were evacuated unharmed from the place of the accident.

According to the press release of the management of the Kostolac thermal power plant, investigation and inspection is on-going at the scene of the accident, with an aim to determine what caused the explosion in the first place.