Police blame fireworks material for explosion
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-08 21:56

Fireworks material was blamed for causing an explosion that killed six in a village in north China's Hebei Province last Monday, local police said Saturday.

The explosion took place at around 1:30 p.m in the house of LiuHaijun, a resident of Guangedian Village in the Lirangdian Township of the Gu'an County in Langfang City.

Six people were killed, including Liu, Liu's wife and daughter.Six others were injured, police said. The explosion also destroyed or damaged dozens of houses.

According to investigation, Li Zhenhai and his wife, both fellow villagers of Liu, had stored a certain amount of fireworks material in Liu's house to prepare for manufacturing fireworks later. However, the material blew up on October 3.

Gu'an County and some neighboring counties have the tradition of manufacturing fireworks and accidents of explosions were reported before.

Local police said they will launch a special campaign to overhaul the illicit manufacturing, selling, transporting and storing such dangerous products.