China chemical plant explosion: relatives grieve and villagers flee like refugees
- Hospital emergency wards filled with injured workers, residents and anxious families
- Survivors and witnesses tell of the destruction caused by Thursday’s blast at chemical plant in Jiangsu
Injured residents scrambled for medical help after a blast at a chemical plant in eastern China’s Jiangsu province erupted with the force of a minor earthquake, killing at least 47 people.
In the hours before dawn on Friday, injured people streamed into the emergency ward at Xiangshui People’s Hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in Xiangshui county, about 300km (186 miles) north of Shanghai.
Dozens of relatives waited anxiously outside the hospital’s casualty area, which was guarded by the police.
Eight-year-old Xu Mengyao was discharged after being given 30 stitches in her forehead. The explosion had shattered the windows of her classroom at a school 20 minutes’ walk from the plant.
After the blast at the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical plant in the township of Chenjiagang, all clinics were full. Xu’s parents took her to three clinics before they found one that could treat her injuries. They then took her to the Xiangshui hospital’s emergency ward to treat a cough.
They clung together on a single bed and prepared to stay overnight, with Xu watching online videos of the explosion on a mobile phone.
