Photo: CFP

 
The Work Safety Committee of the State Council, China's cabinet, announced on Saturday that it has set up a special team to supervise the investigation into the deadly blast in a canteen in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality that has killed 16 people and injured another 10. 

The canteen collapsed on Friday noon following an explosion caused by a suspected gas leak, which left 26 people trapped at that time. 

After the accident, more than 600 professional rescue forces were dispatched, including 327 fire and rescue teams, 52 fire trucks, 60 mine and engineering rescue experts and 20 lifting equipment, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management. 

In June 2021, eight employees from a gas company in Shiyan, Central China's Hubei Province, were arrested by the local police after a deadly gas explosion took the lives of 25 people and injured 138 others.

The preliminary investigation into the case showed the explosion was caused by a leakage of a gas pipeline owned by Shiyan Dongfeng Zhongran City Gas Company. The company's safety management system was not rigorous and workers in the company failed to inspect the gas pipeline in accordance with the rules. Besides, there were serious faults in the operation of equipment.  

Global Times