At least 26 people have been killed and 61 injured after an explosion at a fireworks factory in China forced it to shut down production, the Associated Press and Reuters reported.
The explosion occurred at a fireworks site in the city of Changsha in Hunan province on Monday afternoon, the two agencies reported.
The owner of the company has been arrested by the police, and the cause of the accident is still being investigated, the stores said, without naming the person.
The factory was operated by Huasheng Fireworks Manufacturing and Display Co. in the controlled city of Changsha, which is at the level of Liuyang county, the center of the production of explosives in China.
More than 1,500 rescuers were dispatched to the scene. Medical personnel and police have also been dispatched to aid efforts, Reuters said.
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Robots, including 18 drones, have been deployed to help reduce safety risks for human nurses.
Authorities evacuated nearby residents, citing the high risk posed by two black warehouses near the blast site, Reuters added.
Fireworks and fireworks manufacturers in Liuyang were ordered to stop production.
Changsha Mayor Chen Bozhang said at a press conference that the search and rescue operation at the scene has been largely completed, but the confirmation of the injured and the identification of the victims is still ongoing.
Chen said the local government expressed its condolences to the victims and apologized to the wider community, including the families of the victims and those injured.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, this aerial photo taken on the morning of May 5, 2026, shows rescuers working at the site after an explosion at an explosives factory in Guandu Town of Liuyang, central China’s Hunan Province.
Chen Sihan/Xinhua via AP
“We feel very sad and very sorry,” he said.
Ding Weiming, group secretary of the Changsha Emergency Management Bureau, said that the area has a lot of flammable products, including a large number of guns, which cause random explosions and threaten the safety of rescuers.
Meanwhile, blown away walls, columns, and collapsed roofs left the area in ruins, trapping people and blocking exit routes, Weiming said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “all-out efforts” in the search for those missing and ordered effective risk assessment and risk management, as well as stricter public safety control systems, the AP reported.
Liuyang has a long history of producing fireworks. The Guinness World Records organization said that the first accurately recorded firecracker, a Chinese firecracker, was invented by Li Tian, a monk who lived near Liuyang during China’s Tang Dynasty, from 618 to 907 CE.
Li found that putting a gun in an enclosed bamboo tree produced a loud explosion, and combined crackers to make traditional New Year’s fireworks to ward off evil spirits, Guinness said.
China is no stranger to explosions and industrial accidents. In June last year, an explosion at a fireworks factory in Hunan province killed nine people and injured 26 others.
Last year, China exported fireworks worth 1.14 billion dollars, more than two-thirds of global sales data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity showed.
-via files from the Associated Press and Reuters
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