Death toll rises to 8 in China's building explosion

SHIJIAZHUANG - The death toll has risen to eight after Saturday's explosion triggered by detonators illegally manufactured and stored at a residential building in north China's Hebei Province, local authorities said Monday.

Five more bodies were retrieved while rescuers were clearing the debris in the city of Baoding, the city government said in a statement late Monday.

Another 27 people are still under treatment in hospital, it added.

Two suspects, a 38-year-old man surnamed Ge and his 42-year-old girlfriend, turned themselves in to police Monday noon in the eastern province of Anhui.

Ge and two relatives started producing detonators in 2009. Due to poor sales, the three stored unsold detonators at a house of the six-storey building in Dongwuyao Village.

The explosion that occurred Saturday afternoon toppled part of the building and also shattered the glass windows of buildings 200 meters away.