Yahoo Finance 2 dead and 9 injured in laboratory blast at China’s top aerospace university
Two persons were killed and nine others injured in an explosion at a laboratory of China's top national aerospace university on Sunday.
The explosion took place at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics at 4pm (local time) on Sunday. The varsity later confirmed that the blast, which eventually led to a fire, took place at the College of Material Science and Technology building.
“The reason for the explosion is under investigation and rescue work has ended,” the city’s fire service said on Chinese social media Weibo.
Videos shared on social media showed thick smoke billowing out of the building. Another dramatic video showed the seconds of the explosion, when an entire floor was engulfed by fire.
#China- Two people died and nine were injured in a lab explosion at the #Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics on Sunday afternoon. An investigation into the incident is underway.
📹 pic.twitter.com/24KQe79VYd— Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) October 24, 2021
Nanjing, one of the major centres of higher education, attracts a large number of foreign students every year. It is also known to be China's top defence research institution with laboratories specialising in helicopter technology.
The university has five key laboratories for energy conversion, nuclear energy equipment materials, materials preparation and protection against harsh environments, and electrochemical storage. However, it has not been confirmed where the explosion took place.
The victims’ identity along with other details have been withheld by the university.
Last week four persons were killed and 47 people were hurt in a gas explosion at a BBQ restaurant in China.
Recently in March, a graduate student was killed in a laboratory blast at the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Earlier in 2018, three students were killed in an explosion caused by sewage treatment experiments at the laboratory of Beijing Jiaotong University.
