Restaurant blast in Hebei, China, kills 2

A suspected gas leak caused a blast at a restaurant in China’s northern province of Hebei that wrecked the nearby area to kill two people and injure 26.

SANHE, China — A suspected gas leak caused a blast at a restaurant in China’s northern province of Hebei that ripped facades from buildings, damaged cars and scattered debris to kill two people and injure 26, state media and authorities said Wednesday.

The blast happened at about 8 a.m. (8 p.m. Tuesday ET) in the county of Sanhe, state broadcaster CCTV News said, roughly 50 miles from the center of Beijing, the capital, where key annual parliament sessions had just concluded.

Videos on the social media platform Weibo showed a large orange fireball over the site, followed by billows of gray smoke, and scenes of the destroyed frontage of buildings and mangled cars, with glass shards in the streets and some objects still ablaze.

A suspected gas leak triggered the accident in a shop selling fried chicken in the town of Yanjiao, city emergency officials said in a statement, drawing rescuers, firefighters, health and other officials to the scene.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/restaurant-blast-hebei-china-kills-2-rcna143121

---