China’s president orders safety campaign after explosion at barbecue restaurant kills 31

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s president ordered a national security campaign Thursday after a massive cooking gas explosion at a northwest barbecue restaurant killed 31 people and injured seven others on the eve of a long holiday weekend.

The blast tore through the restaurant at around 8:40 p.m. Wednesday on a busy street in Yinchuan, the capital of the traditionally Muslim Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, as people gathered in front of the Dragon Boat Festivalthe official Xinhua news agency said.

The explosion knocked many people unconscious and had to be carried out of the store, according to online news site The Paper, citing a member of the search and rescue team. The victims included the elderly and high school students, she said.

An hour before the explosion, employees smelled cooking gas and discovered that a gas tank valve was broken, according to Xinhua. The explosion occurred while an employee was replacing the valve.

Chinese President Xi Jinping demanded urgent medical care for the injured and a security review after the explosion, Xinhua said. He urged efforts to quickly determine the cause of the accident and hold people accountable before the law.

Xi also said all related regions and departments should tackle “all kinds of hidden risks and dangers” and launch campaigns to promote workplace safety.

At a press conference on Thursday, the deputy head of the Yinchuan party apologized to everyone in the city, according to the Huanqiu.com news site. Before the press conference began, the participants bowed their heads in silence.

Nine people have been detained by the authorities, including the owner of the restaurant, shareholders and employees. His assets have also been frozen, according to Xinhua.

The explosion occurred at a shop of Fuyang Barbecue, a restaurant chain in Yinchuan popular for its grilled skewers and stir-fried dishes, The Paper said. The two-story restaurant seated 20 people on the ground floor and offered private dining rooms on the second floor where patrons could also sing karaoke.

A video on the social media platform Douyin showed rescuers on stairs trying to reach victims on the second floor. People who appeared to have minor injuries were waiting for help on the side of the road. Other videos showed at least six fire trucks on the scene and some bystanders crying.

A staff member at the Ningxia Medical University General Hospital emergency clinic confirmed that some victims were being treated there, but declined to provide further information.

The newspaper quoted a woman identified only by her last name, Chen, as saying she was about 160 feet (50 meters) from the restaurant when she heard the explosion. She described seeing two servers leave the restaurant, one of whom immediately collapsed, as thick smoke rose and a strong odor of cooking gas permeated the area.

The central government’s Ministry of Emergency Management said on social media that search and rescue work at the restaurant was completed early Thursday morning and investigators were working to determine the cause of the explosion.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday dedicated to eating rice dumplings and racing boats powered by rowing teams. While the majority of Yinchuan’s population are Han Chinese, one-third are Hui people or Chinese Muslims.

Industrial accidents of this type occur regularly in China, generally blamed on poor government oversight, corruption, cost-cutting measures by employers, and poor employee safety training.

At least nine people were killed in an explosion at a Chinese petrochemical plant, and three others were killed in a helicopter crash during the country’s May Day holiday.

In February, 53 miners were killed in the collapse of a huge open pit coal mine in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, prompting numerous arrests, and four people were detained over a fire at an industrial trading company in central China in November that killed 38 people.

The central government has promised tighter security measures since a 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers. In that case, several local officials were accused of taking bribes to ignore security violations.

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AP Video Producer Penny Wang in Bangkok contributed to this report.