Public order restored after chemical plant blasts in Jilin
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-11-15 00:33

More than 40,000 residents and college students evacuated after Sunday's blasts in a chemical plant in Jilin City resumed normal life on Tuesday, according to local officials.

"All the students evacuated after the explosions returned to their classrooms this morning," said Deng Min, an official from Jilin Chemical Industry College, one of the two affected colleges.

The blasts took place at about 1:45 p.m. Sunday in a workshop of the No. 101 Chemical Plant under the China National Petroleum Corporation's Jilin Petrochemical Company based in Jilin City, some 100 km east of Changchun, the provincial capital.

Some 30,000 residents, 7,000 students of the Jilin Chemical Industry College and nearly 5,000 students of the north district of North China University were evacuated shortly after the explosions for fear of further explosions and chemical pollution.

Because the fire was brought under control and no poisonous gaswas detected in the air, the public order was restored on Monday.

Workers are busy repairing the window glasses shattered by the explosions in a district near the site of the blasts.

"Now we are safe because the situation is under control," said a local resident named Hou Chengguan.