Fire at China fuel plant contained

Firefighters fought for three hours to put out a blaze today at a major petrochemical refinery in the north-eastern Chinese city of Dalian, the second fire in two months at the facility, police and the company said.

State-owned PetroChina, China's biggest oil and gas producer, said the fire occurred in a diesel tank containing 800 tons of fuel at its subsidiary Dalian Petrochemical, but any that escaped had been channelled into an emergency storage pool.