A powerful explosion destroyed a fireworks factory in North China's Hebei Province, killing 29 people and injuring more than 100, Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army clean up the site of an explosion in a fireworks factory in North China's Hebei Province yesterday. [newsphoto.com.cn]

Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army clean up the site of an explosion in a fireworks factory in North China's Hebei Province yesterday. [newsphoto.com.cn]

The explosion happened at about 6 pm Monday evening in the township of Wangkou. The blast demolished half of a two-storey office building 100 metres away and set fire to cars and motorcycles close to the factory building.

Photographs taken by Xinhua News Agency showed rescue workers in hard hats, complete with motorized shovel combing through the charred rubble of the plant.

Twenty-nine people had been confirmed dead as of yesterday, while rescue workers are still working hard to find missing bodies.

Reports said that more than 100 people were injured in the blast, although only a few cases were considered serious.

"I thought it was an earthquake. I was really scared. My sister and I just ran out of the house,'' Qian Yun, a 19-year-old living about 5 kilometres away from the factory, said in a telephone interview with China Central Television.

Another villager, Zhang Fangjie, was working on his farm at the time of the blast.

"I heard three or four explosions in a row and saw black smoke rising in the distance,'' the 40-year-old Zhang said.

The explosion was caused by heat-induced ignition of gunpowder,Xinhua quoted local police as saying. The powder exploded due to the hot weather in the last few days, local government officials said.

Reports from Xinhua said the factory was authorized to produce pyrotechnics by the local government in December 2000. It had passed safety inspections from local police departments.

Fatal explosions still occur frequently at China's fireworks factories, despite a safety crackdown launched in early 2002 following a series of high-profile accidents.

The industry employs hundreds of thousands of people, with many working at home or in small factories where most manufacturing is done by hand.

In one of the worst recent cases, 80 people were killed in April 2002 in the northern province of Shaanxi, when a villager set off explosives stored in the house of a business rival.

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