Qingdao oil pipeline blast kills 22

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(Xinhua) 15:59, November 22, 2013

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Photo taken with a mobile phone shows the site of a pipeline explosion in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Nov. 22, 2013. A fire broke out and the blast occurred around 10 a.m. in the Huangdao District when workers were repairing a petroleum pipeline which broke and resulted in an oil leakage around 3 a.m. (Xinhua)

QINGDAO, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- At least 22 people were killed after a leaking pipeline caught fire and exploded on Friday morning in the coastal city of Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province, local authorities said.

The number of injured people has not yet been confirmed. The injured are being treated in local hospitals.

The accident happened around 10:30 a.m. at the crossing between Haihe Road and Zhaitangdao Road in Huangdao District as workers were repairing a petroleum pipeline, according to the Qingdao government's publicity office. The pipeline had begun leaking oil at around 3 a.m. at the crossing between Qinghuangdao Road and Zhaitangdao Road, the office said.

Oil leaked from the Sinopec pipeline into the municipal pipe network, which caused the explosion, according to an initial investigation by the rescue headquarters at the scene.

A terror attack has been excluded as the cause, according to the district government.

About 1,000 square meters of road surface was covered in leaked oil at Zhaitangdao Road. Some of the oil had spilled into Jiaozhou Bay through the rainwater pipeline, and about 3,000 square meters of sea water was polluted by oil, according to the rescue headquarters.

Fires and explosions also occurred on the polluted sea waters at the entrance to the bay, according to the headquarters.

Xinhua reporters saw cracks in the streets, the longest of which was about 1.5 kilometers.

"I have only seen this in a disaster film," said a rescuer surnamed Xue, who drove past the streets where the blast happened.

Xue told Xinhua he was astonished by the sight of a bus sandwiched between huge cracks in the street with passengers trapped inside.

"Some cars along the street are turned over, some are covered with concrete slabs, and some others have lost their window glass," he said.

Oil flow through the pipeline was shut off at about 3:15 a.m. The fire has been put out, and barricades have been set up to stop the oil from entering the sea, according to a comment posted on Friday afternoon on the official microblog of the Qingdao municipal environmental protection bureau on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging service.

The 176-km pipeline is owned by Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner, and links oil depots in Huangdao to Weifang City, home to a few petrochemical plants.

An oil belt with a length of two to three meters could be seen in waters around the site of the explosion as of 2:40 p.m. No new oil leakage from the pipeline had been found, according to a Xinhua reporter at the scene.

Rescue work continues, and the cause of the accident is being investigated.

Photographs posted on Sina Weibo showed that the blast caused a large trench in the ground and car windows nearby were cracked.

Environmental monitoring showed that the concentration of toxic materials in the air was below the national standard. The local government has told citizens to remain calm.

Huangdao District is connected with the city proper by the Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge.

Xinhua reporters said the exit on the bridge leading to Huangdao has been temporarily closed and only emergency vehicles are allowed to enter. Local traffic authorities have told drivers to allow rescue vehicles to pass.