Five people were killed and six others were missing as of Tuesday evening following an explosion at the workshop of a chemical company in the city of Gaomi, in east China's Shandong Province, the local emergency management bureau said.
Nineteen people also sustained minor injuries in the accident that occurred at the Shandong Youdao Chemical Co., Ltd. at noon on that day, the bureau said.
Provincial and local authorities have established a joint rescue command center to coordinate rescue efforts, focusing on searching for the missing, treating the injured, comforting families and monitoring the environment. Search and cleanup work at the scene is still ongoing.
The Ministry of Emergency Management immediately dispatched a work team and specialized personnel, including firefighters, medical experts and work safety specialists, to aid local rescue efforts.
5 killed, 6 missing in east China chemical plant explosion
The Langqi passenger terminal in Fuzhou of east China's Fujian Province officially commenced a new departure tax refund initiative for travelers heading on the "mini three links" route on Tuesday, with streamlined measures boosting the efficiency of tax refunds and speeding up customs clearance procedures.
The "mini three links" refers to direct trade, postal and transport services launched in 2001 between Fujian Province and the Taiwan-administered Kinmen and Matsu islands. It serves as a vital, convenient cross-strait passage for personnel exchanges and economic and trade interactions between the Chinese mainland and the Taiwan region.
At the heart of the upgraded service is an optimized procedure dubbed the "one document, one bag, one code" process, a simple and streamlined model designed to shorten clearance time for outbound passengers.
Under this framework, travelers who make purchases at designated pilot tax refund stores can have their qualified goods consolidated into a single sealed bag, with all corresponding tax refund information integrated into a unique QR code printed on the tax refund application form.
When departing via the Langqi passenger terminal, on-site customs officers only need to scan the QR code to retrieve and verify the details relating to the applicant's tax refund application. Travelers can then get quick customs clearance once the information is confirmed to be accurate, with no requirement to open their sealed shopping bags for repeated inspections.
Departure tax refund services launched at "mini three links" port in Fuzhou
