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Blast at illegal fireworks plant kills 6 in SW China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-24 19:46

GUIYANG -- Six people have been killed and five others injured in an explosion at an illegal fireworks workshop in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local officials said Saturday.

Community watch group checked at a local fireworks shop in the city of Kaifeng, Central China's Henan province Friday, January 23, 2009. Six people have been killed and five others injured in an explosion at an illegal fireworks workshop in southwest China's Guizhou Province. [www.kf.cn]

The explosion took place at 4:40 p.m. Friday at the home of a villager in Yanhe County that was illegally used as a fireworks workshop. It toppled five rooms and killed six people at the scene, said officials from the provincial work safety bureau and the county government.

An Qihong, party chief of Yanhe, told Xinhua that the five injured people were sent to the hospital and were no longer in danger on Saturday.

All the 11 people are from the same family, An added.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident.