Five dead, two missing in Chinese chemicals plant blast

An explosion at a chemical plant in central China's Henan Province left five dead, two missing and 108 injured early on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

BEIJING, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - An explosion at a chemical plant in central China's Henan Province left five dead, two missing and 108 injured early on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The blast and subsequent fire occurred at a plant producing chemical dyes in Luoyang City in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The agency said the injured people were hospitalized, adding that seven of the victims were seriously hurt.

No chemical leak was initially reported and efforts to prevent possible environmental pollution started immediately. The cause of the incident has yet to be established.

This is the second industrial incident in Henan since the beginning of the summer. A leak of a radioactive Cobalt-60 in early June led to a panic among residents. The government said the release of the radioactive metal did not affect the environment.