At least 47 killed in Chinese village explosion

An explosion in a Chinese villager’s home has killed at least 47 people in a coal mining area that has suffered a series of deadly blasts blamed on mishandled explosives.

Another 28 people were injured in the 6.30am (11.30pm Irish time Thursday) explosion in the village of Dongzhai in Shanxi province, the Xinhua News Agency said. It said the cause under investigation.

Shanxi is a major coal-producing area where explosives often are made in unlicensed workshops that lack required safety equipment and stored in private homes.

In April, 31 people were killed in Shanxi when a 1.8 tonne cache of explosives blew up at a hospital. A hospital administrator who moonlighted as a coal mine manager admitted storing the explosives at the hospital.

Last month, in another village in Shanxi, 10 people were killed when a blast ripped through a building where dynamite was being made illegally, according to news reports.

Elsewhere in Shanxi, six people were killed in February when a cache of explosives stored in a house blew up.