The death toll from a giant explosion at a fireworks factory in central China rose to 26, with 61 more injured.
state broadcaster CCTV reports the explosion occurred at the Liuyang Huasheng Fireworks Manufacturing and Display Company in Liuyang, Hunan province.
Following the blast, all fireworks makers in Hunan’s provincial capital Changsha, which administers Liuyang, had been ordered to stop production ahead of safety inspections.
Videos on social media showed continuous explosions accompanied by a vast cloud of smoke rising high into the air in a rural area surrounded by mountains.
Drone footage from CCTV taken a day later showed a swathe of smouldering debris where buildings had stood, with rescue workers and excavators scouring the rubble.
Smoke continued to rise from some buildings left standing, many of them with their roofs blown off.
President Xi Jinping had called for “all-out efforts” to treat the injured, search for missing persons, and for those responsible to be held accountable, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Liuyang is a major fireworks hub, producing around 60 percent of the fireworks sold in China and 70 percent of those exported.
Industrial accidents, including in the fireworks industry, are common in China due to lax safety standards.
Last year, an explosion at another fireworks factory in Hunan killed nine people, and in 2023, three people were killed after blasts struck residential buildings in the northern city of Tianjin.
In February, separate explosions at fireworks shops in Hubei and Jiangsu provinces killed 12 and eight people.