China, Feb 21: At least 10 people were killed and another 17 injured in an explosion at a steel plant in northeastern China, a company official said Tuesday, in the latest industrial accident to hit the country.
Another three people were still missing after the accident late Monday in a steel casting workshop owned by state-run Angang Heavy Machinery in the city of Anshan in Liaoning province, a spokesman for parent company Ansteel Group said.
"We're still searching (for the people missing) and trying to find the cause," Song Jiachen told AFP.
The 17 injured had been taken to hospital for treatment, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.
An investigation into the cause of the blast is under way.
Workplace accidents are common in China, where bosses frequently ignore safety rules in the quest for higher profits.
Nearly 50,000 people died in work-related accidents in the first nine months of 2011, down 16 percent from the the same period in 2010, figures from the State Administration of Work Safety show.
