China fireworks truck explosion causes deadly highway collapse
| BEIJING
An elevated portion of highway in central聽China聽collapsed on Friday after a聽truck聽loaded withfireworks聽for Lunar New Year celebrations exploded, killing at least nine people and sending vehicles plummeting 30 meters (about 100 feet) to the ground.
The official Xinhua News Agency said nine people were confirmed dead and another 13 injured, including four in serious condition. It said the collapse smashed and buried at least 25 vehicles.
Earlier reports by聽China聽National Radio and some other outlets of 26 people killed were later removed from websites, without explanation.
An 80-meter (260-foot) stretch of the major east-west highway collapsed in Mianchi county in Henan province. It scattered blackened chunks of debris and shattered the windows of a nearby聽truck聽stop.
A聽truck聽driver interviewed on CCTV said he was only 20 meters (yards) away from the聽explosion.
"I heard a huge bang and immediately braked. I saw small fireballs falling down one by one," said the unidentified聽truck聽driver, whose聽truck聽windshield was smashed from the impact of the blast.
"I then heard the sounds of clanking and exploding for five to six minutes," the driver said. "My face was covered in dust."
Photos posted online by Xinhua showed a stretch of elevated highway gone, with one聽truck's聽back wheels perched at the edge of a shorn-off section of the highway. Other photos showed firefighters below spraying water on scorched hunks of concrete, wrecked聽trucks聽and flattened shipping containers.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the聽explosion. It occurred about 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Luoyang, an ancient capital of聽China聽known for grottoes of Buddhist statues carved from limestone cliffs.
Fireworks聽are an enormously popular part of Chinese Lunar New Year festivities. To meet the demand,fireworks聽are made, shipped and stored in large quantities, sometimes in unsafe conditions.
A result is periodic catastrophe: In 2006, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, a storeroom of聽fireworksexploded at a temple fair in Henan, killing 36 people and injuring dozens more. In 2000, an unlicensedfireworks聽factory in southern聽China聽exploded, killing 33 people, including 13 primary and secondary school students working there.
