The provisional toll is at least 21 dead and over 60 injured a huge explosion at a fireworks factory in China’s Hunan province. The explosion occurred around 4.43pm on Monday 4 May local time at Huasheng Fireworks Manufacturing and Display Company in Liuyang, a major fireworks manufacturing center, which produces around 60% of those sold in China and 70% of those exported.
Nearly 500 rescuers were sent to the scene and a three-kilometer monitoring area was established, while the Chinese President Xi Jinping asked a timely investigation into the incident, underlining that those responsible must be identified.
Xi also ordered the strengthening of risk control in the most at-risk sectors, urging the implementation of public safety management. The dramatic accident in Liuyang is in fact only the latest in the series: last year an explosion at another fireworks plant in Hunan killed nine people, while in 2023 three people died following explosions that hit residential buildings in the northern city of Tianjin. In February, two separate explosions at fireworks shops in Hubei and Jiangsu provinces resulted in 12 and eight deaths, respectively.