Firework blasts kill 26 in China ahead of New Year

BEIJING - An explosion at a firecracker workshop in northern China killed 25 people and injured nine, most of them young women, and a similar blast in another province the same afternoon killed one man, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

The explosions on Tuesday were the latest for a cottage industry with poor safety standards and plagued by deadly accidents.

Firecrackers are lit across China to celebrate festivals, weddings and other big occasions, and none come bigger than the start of the Chinese New Year, which this year falls on February 9.

Xinhua earlier said the explosion in the Xiangfen county in Shanxi province, roughly 300km southwest of Beijing, had killed 12 people and injured 11.

Most of the victims were young women workers. The owner of the workshop had gone into hiding, Xinhua said.

The cause was under investigation.

In Anhui province, about 300km west of Shanghai, a man was killed when he was making firecrackers at home and his wife was seriously injured, it said.

- REUTERS