A total of 31 people are feared dead after explosions in two provinces in China yesterday.
In the northern city of Shijiazhuang, a series of predawn explosions ripped through four residential blocks in separate districts with 18 people confirmed dead. Local reports and human rights groups said the death toll was considerably higher.
And in an incident in Hunan Province, 13 people are confirmed dead following a gas explosion in Shuidong coal mine in Linwu County. Five others are reported injured.
News of the tragedies came a day after the Chinese Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji, apologised for the school explosion which took the lives of over 40 children in Jiangxi Province last week. It is suspected that the blast occurred when children were making fireworks in an illegal underground operation.
On Thursday, Mr Zhu insisted his own investigation found no evidence that pupils were making fireworks. But in a rare public apology by a Chinese leader, he said he regretted what happened and was determined that children would not be put to work in such labour operations.
There was no confirmation last night as to what caused the four blasts in Shijiazhuang, in Hebei Province. Local residents said rumours were circulating that disgruntled workers laid off by state firms were responsible.
The explosions occurred almost simultaneously sometime after 8 p.m. on Thursday. Two of the blasts were in blocks near state-owned cotton mills, one near a university, and the fourth damaged a dormitory near the Hebei Provincial Television and Broadcasting University.
The most powerful explosion destroyed a five-storey building used as a dormitory by the Number 3 Cotton Mill.
Rescue workers were still digging frantically late yesterday afternoon through rubble in a search for survivors. There were reports that riot police were patrolling areas around the blast sites and streets were sealed off.
Police had closed off the area yesterday and reporters were prevented from entering the hospital where the injured have been taken.
All government departments held emergency meetings yesterday morning "to instruct staff to pay more attention to safety", according to an official.
The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy claimed last night the death toll was likely to rise. It said in a statement the complete collapse of the Number 3 Cotton Mill dormitory suggested explosives. The group said the block housed an estimated 150 people.
Shijiazhuang has a population of 1.3 million and is the centre of China's declining cotton textile industry, which has seen millions of layoffs around the country due to state industrial restructuring.
Meanwhile, a power failure is being blamed for the gas explosion in the state-owned coal mine in Hunan which claimed 13 lives.
The power failure, lasting half-an-hour, took place yesterday morning at the excavation end of Tunnel 217 of the Shuidong coal mine. Specialists at the Hunan coal mine safety supervision bureau initially said that the power failure resulted in a large accumulation of gas, which exploded when sparks ignited. After the incident, a rescue group was set up in Linwu County.
China seized 500 million yuan ($60 million) worth of counterfeit goods with foreign brand names in 2000, the China Daily reported. Mr Zhu Mingxiang, deputy director of the State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision, said the government would not discriminate between domestic and overseas products in offering protection against counterfeiters, the paper reported.