65 die, over 100 hurt in China factory blast

BEIJING, Aug 2 (AFP): An explosion at a factory in eastern China on Saturday killed 65 people, a government broadcaster said, while more than 100 were injured in what appeared to be an industrial accident.

The explosion in Kunshan, a city in the eastern province of Jiangsu near Shanghai, "has resulted in 65 deaths", state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said in an Internet post.

Graphic photographs posted online showed a charred body being wheeled on a stretcher, and people with burned clothing sitting on the ground outside a factory complex that was billowing black smoke.

"The scene is a mess, it's unrecognisable," a witness at the scene wrote on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Industrial accidents occur with some regularity in China, where safety standards are often lax.

A fire at a poultry plant in the northeast of the country killed 119 people last year.

Medical staff have been sent from China's commercial hub Shanghai to treat burns victims, the People's Daily added in an online post.