7 killed, dozens injured in explosion in China

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7 killed, dozens injured in explosion in China

Seven people died and more than 200 others were hurt Tuesday in an explosion in southwest China's Guizhou Province, the Xinhua news agency said, citing local authorities.
The explosion, which the state-run news agency Xinhua described as an accident, occurred at about 11:30 a.m., when two cargo trucks carrying some 70 metric tons of explosives exploded in front of a motor vehicle testing station in the city of Fuquan, about 100 km (62 miles) from Guizhou's capital of Guiyang, the news agency said.
Windows in nearby houses shattered; cars were damaged as was a grain warehouse, it said.
A witness told Xinhua that the testing station was destroyed and an adjacent five-story residential building was damaged.
Of the more than 200 people who were taken to a hospital, 25 were in critical condition, a rescue hospital headquarters spokesman told the news agency.
"After hearing the noise, my head and legs were hit by flying objects, and then I fell unconscious," Long Lifeng, a 40-year-old sales clerk at a nearby gas station, told Xinhua. She said she received four stitches on her head,
Some victims were placed in beds in corridors of the No. 1 People's Hospital in Fuquan because of overcrowding, it said.
The blast was under investigation, the news agency reported.