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
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that the situation in Iran is "under total control" following violence linked to protests that spiked over the weekend.
Addressing foreign diplomats in Tehran, the foreign minister noted that armed terrorist groups had infiltrated the protests, attempting to divert them from their legitimate course. He claimed that evidence has been gathered showing Iranian security forces being shot at, with the aim of causing further casualties. He accused the United States and Israel of exploiting the unrest to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.
Araghchi further stated that the government is closely monitoring developments on the streets, emphasizing that "the situation has come under control." He also affirmed that internet services, curtailed during the unrest, would be restored after coordination with security agencies.
The government has engaged in dialogue with merchants and protest representatives and initiated reforms to address grievances related to price hikes and currency depreciation. Iran has taken a series of actions and measures to respond to the demands of peaceful demonstrators, the foreign minister said.
Earlier on Sunday, Araghchi said that clear evidence links recent riots and vandalism of public facilities in Iran to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. This came after former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned Mossad agents operating on Iran's streets in a social media post. The Iranian foreign minister asserted that police are being attacked by "terrorists" acting under the direction of Israeli operatives, whom Pompeo publicly acknowledged.
The protests initially erupted over a sharp depreciation of the rial and sweeping subsidy reforms. Iranian authorities have blamed the unrest on foreign-linked agents and U.S. sanctions.
Iranian foreign minister says situation "fully under control," accuses Israeli intelligence of stoking unrest
