A picture taken with a mobile phone shows injured people waiting for medical help after an explosion at an automotive parts factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, China, on August 2, 2014.(Photo: Featurechina/EPA)
BEIJING - An explosion Saturday morning killed at least 65 people and injured over 150 at an automotive parts factory in China that supplies General Motors, said state news agency Xinhua.
The blast hit at approximately 7:37 a.m. local time inside a wheel hub polishing workshop at at factory run by the Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Products Co. Ltd. in Kunshan city in east China's Jiangsu province, said Xinhua. The firm is a Taiwanese company, founded in 1998, in a part of China with significant investment from Taiwan.
An initial probe indicated that the explosion may have been caused by flames that ignited dust, China's Ministry of Public Security said on its official Weibo account, a Twitter-like microblog, Xinhua reported.
Footage and cellphone images aired by Hong Kong's Phoenix Television and news websites in China showed a large plume of smoke rising from the factory, a truck loaded with corpses and survivors with extensive burn wounds sitting on wooden cargo pallets outside the factory gates.
More than 120 injured people have been sent to hospitals in Kunshan and the nearby city of Suzhou. The local government has asked citizens to donate blood. Medical staff have been sent from Shanghai to treat burns victims, said the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party' s main newspaper.
Rising incomes in China have led to an automotive boom and record sales for U.S. car-makers including GM and Ford who have significant operations in China manufacturing for the local market. China's industrial safety record has improved in recent years, with a reduction in accidents that cause multiple fatalities, though accidents remain common.
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