Explosion at Chinese chemical factory kills nine

An explosion at a chemical factory in eastern China has killed nine people and injured two others, Chinese news reports said.

According to a story by the Xinhua News Agency, the cause of the Oct. 21 explosion at a workshop owned by Tianbao Chemical Industry Co. in Linyi city in Shandong province is still unknown.

The company manufactures chemicals for the plastics and mining industries.

The explosion is the latest in a string of serious accidents involving deadly chemicals in China. In August, 173 people, many of them firefighters, were killed in a chemical explosion in the port of Tianjin involving 700 tons of highly toxic sodium cyanide.