10 killed in gas leak at steel factory in Shandong, China

 By 
Victoria Ho
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

A gas leak at a steel parts factory in eastern China has killed 10 people and left seven others hospitalized with poisoning.

The Zouping County government said the leak at the Shandong Fukai Stainless Steel Company occurred at around 5:50 p.m. on Saturday, and poisoned 17 people. Five of the victims died immediately, and five more died early Sunday. The other seven remain in the hospital in stable conditions.

The cause of the leak is under investigation. Satellite images show the factory next to warehouses and low-rise residential homes in a village about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of Jinan, the Shandong provincial capital.

Death toll rises to 10 in gas poisoning incident in Zouping county, eastern China's Shandong Province— CCTVNEWS (@cctvnews) November 30, 2015

According to local reports [link in Chinese], the municipal government set up an emergency meeting on Monday morning with 78 of the city's gas and energy companies to get them to be more vigilant against similar occurrences.

The deadly leak is the latest industrial accident in China, where authorities are under pressure to improve work safety after a huge chemical blast in Tianjin killed at least 140 people and left a swath of the port city in smoldering ruins.

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