Deadly blast at barbecue restaurant in northwest China kills 31

A massive explosion at a barbecue restaurant in northwestern China on the eve of a national holiday has left 31 dead and injured seven.

A leak of liquefied petroleum gas from a cooking unit at the restaurant caused the explosion, state news agency Xinhua said.

Seven people were still undergoing treatment for burn injuries and cuts from broken glass, reported Xinhua agency.

The blast ripped through the Fuyang Barbecue Restaurant at around 8.40pm local time on Wednesday in a residential area of downtown Yinchuan, the capital of the Ningxia autonomous region.

It happened as more than usual people were gathered on the eve of the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, a national holiday celebrated by eating rice dumplings and racing boats manned by teams of paddlers.

Footage on state broadcaster CCTV showed dozens of firefighters working at the site to douse the fire as smoke billowed out of the restaurant’s façade. Another footage showed shards of glass littered on the road.

The latest incident of an industrial accident in China has prompted president Xi Jinping to order a safety overhaul across the country.

An eyewitness – a woman surnamed Chen – said she was some 50m away from the site of the explosion when she heard a loud blast, according to online news site The Paper.

She said she saw two waiters emerging out of the restaurant soon after the explosion and one of them collapsed immediately.

A strong smell of cooking gas permeated the area, she added.

A search and rescue operation was completed in the early hours of Thursday morning and investigators were sent to determine the cause of the blast, said the Central Government’s Ministry of Emergency Management.

It said they displaced a team of more than 100 people and 20 vehicles to the scene for the rescue operation.

Industrial accidents are common in China and they are usually blamed on poor government supervision, cost-cutting measures by employers, corruption and little safety training for employees.

On 1 May, at least nine people were killed in an explosion at a Chinese petrochemical plant during the country’s May Day holiday.

In February, 53 miners were dead following the collapse of a massive open pit coal mine in the northern region of Inner Mongolia.

In the same month, four people were detained following a fire at an industrial trading company in central China in November that killed 38 people.