Huge blast kills two, injures 26 in northern China

AFP:   A huge suspected gas explosion at a restaurant in northern China killed two people and injured 26 more Wednesday, state media reported, causing severe damage to buildings.

The blast occurred just before 8:00 am (0000 GMT), state broadcaster CCTV said, in a residential area in the city of Sanhe, Hebei province, less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of the centre of Beijing.

Footage online circulated by state media showed a huge explosion that sent plumes of smoke and fire across a busy road.

CCTV reported at 1:30 pm that two people had since died and that 26 were injured. The fire has been extinguished, it added.

The explosion was suspected to have been caused by a gas leak at a fried chicken shop, state media reported.

Two large buildings were completely destroyed in the blast, footage shared by the broadcaster showed, with rescue teams seen hauling away a car hit by the explosion.

Rescue workers can also be seen carrying away a large gas canister.

Residents told AFP journalists they had heard a loud explosion before rushing outside to see a plume of smoke rising into the morning air.

"I heard a great big bang... which scared me stiff," a seller at a local market told AFP.

"Outside, I saw clouds of black smoke," they added.

Another seller said they also heard a "huge bang" from the blast site, in a bustling area of squat apartment blocks about six or seven floors high.

"The noise was too loud," a vender surnamed Wang told AFP, adding she had heard a "second explosion".

"When I saw many people were running there, I took a video," a local man said.

"The smoke was thick but I didn't see the explosion. When I reached the scene, there was still smoke," he said.

Near the scene of the blast, an AFP team observed police waving oncoming traffic away from an entrance to the neighbourhood where the explosion occurred.

From a police cordon on the north side of the blast zone, they could see a tower of grey smoke a few hundred metres (yards) away.

AFP was refused access to the nearby Jingdong Zhongmei Hospital, where the victims had been taken.

A man who identified himself as the head of security for the hospital said staff were "all busy treating patients" and that local government permission was needed before AFP could talk to victims.