Huge China Chemical Plant Explosion Leaves 5 Dead, 6 Missing

A massive explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China devastated the facility, sending chemicals and shockwaves into homes at least a kilometre away, local media said.

Local residents near the now half-destroyed plant in Shandong province were assessing and repairing damage to their homes on Wednesday from the still unexplained blast that killed at least five, and injured 19 others, while six more people are still missing.

Plumes of black and grey smoke lingered over the wreckage in Gaomi, a day after the explosion, which occurred at the Shandong Youdao Chemical Company at about noon on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency said.

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Farmer Yu Qianming said he and his wife had moved their grandchild elsewhere as a precaution, although they felt safe in their home as long as the wind kept blowing in a northerly direction.

His family had escaped without injury, the 69-year-old said, while showing roofing material that fell and windows that shattered in the blast.

Local officials have yet to issue the results of air quality tests on Tuesday, after a column of orange and black smoke billowed from the plant.

Rescuers work at the site of a chemical company explosion in the city of Gaomi, in eastern China (Xinhua).

On Wednesday, vehicles patrolled the perimeter of the site that sprawls over more than 47 hectares (116 acres), while drone footage showed multi-storey buildings flattened by the blast.

Liu Ming, a 60-year-old who lives 500 metres (547 yards) away, said she was considering moving after her home and clothing store suffered extensive damage, though she did not have any firm plans yet.

She showed window frames pulverised by the blast, with shards of glass strewn among boxes of thread and clothes on the floor.

Several shops away, another store owner had a minor head wound from the blast, which happened while he was eating lunch.

Set up in August 2019 in the Gaomi Renhe chemical park, the Shandong Youdao Chemical plant develops and makes chemicals used in pesticides and pharmaceuticals, the company said on its website, with more than 300 employees at the site.

Blasts in recent years at chemical plants in China have included one in the northwest region of Ningxia in 2024 and another in the southeastern province of Jiangxi in 2023.

In 2015, two massive explosions at warehouses of hazardous and flammable chemicals in the port city of Tianjin that killed more than 170 people and injured 700 prompted tougher laws on storage of chemicals.

Another blast that year at a Shandong chemical plant killed 13.