19 perish in China factory fire

The death toll from a massive explosion at a fireworks factory in northeastern China has risen to 19, with more than 150 others injured, state media said Tuesday.

The blast on early Monday shattered the windows of buildings one kilometre (half a mile) away from the plant near the city of Yichun in Heilongjiang province, the official Xinhua news agency said. Shockwaves from the explosion were felt five kilometres away, it said.

"We assumed it was an earthquake because the office building trembled and the lamps and clocks fell," an unnamed employee from a nearby furniture factory told the China Daily newspaper.

"A huge black mushroom cloud was visible. It rose and grew from where the fireworks factory is located," she said.

Of the 153 injured, more than 20 were in hospital, the paper said. Workers were packing stock inside the factory at the time of the blast, a local official, Zhao Weiqiang, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

More than 2,000 residents were evacuated as over 550 firefighters and soldiers extinguished the blaze caused by the blast, the reports said. Hundreds of rescuers were sent to the factory to search for survivors.