Thirty-two workers were confirmed dead and six others injured on
Wednesday after molten metal spewed through a steel plant in
northeast China's Liaoning Province, local work safety
authorities said.
Grief-stricken families cry while waiting outside Qinghe
Special Steel Corporation.
The accident occurred at 7:45 AM in a workshop in Qinghe Special
Steel Corporation, in Tieling City, when a steel ladle -- used for
pouring molten steel -- suddenly sheared off from the iron rail
linking it to the blast furnace.
The ladle, two meters in diameter and containing 30 tons of
liquid, was moving into pouring position above a worktable when it
fell, throwing white-hot molten metal at around 1,500 degrees
Celsius into a room where workers had gathered as they changed
shifts. The liquid metal engulfed the room, bursting through the
door and windows and burying the workers.
Work safety officials who rushed to the site said the bodies of
32 workers had been recovered and the six injured had been taken to
hospital.
One of the injured was in a critical condition and the others
were stable condition, but were still in danger catching infections
through their burns, said doctors.
As the bodies were burned beyond recognition, DNA technology
would be used for identification, said officials.
The families of the victims would receive at least 200,000 yuan
(US$26,000) each in compensation, the officials said.
The cause of the accident is being investigated. The plant owner
and three employees in charge of work safety have been
arrested.
The accident comes in a black week in China's industrial safety
record.
At least 47 miners are still trapped below ground in Chinese
coal pits after three separate accidents, in Heilongjiang, Henan
and Hunan provinces respectively, happened all on Monday.
The privately-run mines had no valid license and certificates,
but were operating illegally. Since the accidents, local
governments have closed dozens of illegal coal mines.
In the first two months of this year, coal mine accidents alone
killed 357 people, figures from the State Administration of Work
Safety show.
The government has vowed to avoid further mining accidents,
setting a goal of reducing the death rate to 2.1 for every one
million tons of coal produced by 2010, down from 2.81 in 2005. The
2005 rate was 70 times worse than the United States and seven times
than Russia and India.
(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2007)
