7000 buckets with explosive chemicals swept away by floods

Emergency workers in China discovered that more than 7,000 buckets containing explosive chemicals had been washed into a major river in country's northeast, officials said.

Emergency workers in China discovered that more than 7,000 buckets containing explosive chemicals had been washed into a major river in country's northeast, officials said on Thursday.

HT Image

But only 3,000 buckets contained chemicals, about 170 kilograms each, and the other 4,000 buckets were empty, government officials said in Jilin City, from where the containers were swept away in flood waters from a chemical factory.

The containers from a local chemical plant had more than 160,000 kg of explosive chemical fluids, officials said yesterday. The buckets were swept into the Songhuajiang River from a plant in Jilin City in floods triggered by days of heavy rain.

About 400 buckets had been recovered so far.