As casualties continued to rise, police in northern Thailand yesterday investigated the cause of an explosion at a Taiwanese-run longan processing plant in Chiang Mai on Sunday which killed at least 26 people and injured more than 100 others, police said.
As of yesterday morning, 26 factory workers were confirmed dead while 20 others, all workers at the factory, were still unaccounted for, police said.
They added that an illegal chemical used to stimulate fruit growth was believed to have caused the explosion.
PHOTO: AFP
Police and military investigators scoured through the leveled fruit processing factory to determine why the two explosions occurred.
Preliminary investigation results show that piles of potassium chlorate stored in the fruit processing factory could be the cause of the explosion, which demolished 30 houses around the factory, as well as a temple.
According to a local agriculturist who requested anonymity, the factory, located in Chiang Mai's San Patong district, uses potassium chlorate as a fruit stimulant. Since longan, a type of tropical fruit, has not blossomed since the spring of this year, farmers had applied potassium chlorate to the longan trees enabling them to blossom within 35 days.
Investigators believe a large cache of potassium chlorate, used in the manufacture of explosives, blew up after being sparked.
Speculation about what caused the combustion includes gas used in the drying of the longan fruit, faulty electricity or maybe another chemical.
Chavalit Wongatchariya, the town police superintendent, said the blast may have occurred during the mixing of regular fertilizer, potassium chlorate and sulfur.
Potassium chlorate, a restricted substance and not normally used as a fertilizer, has been used by local growers to stimulate the fruiting of crops outside the regular season.
He said 26 people were still missing, and the search for bodies was continuing.
The police officer said the factory manager, Prathan Trichat, was under arrest and charged with selling a restricted substance without permission.
A report from television station ITV, said the factory was being rented from a Thai national by Lee Hong Tien, a Taiwanese businessmen who exported the dried longan to Hong Kong.
ITV said Lee, who was currently in Hong Kong, would be called back for investigation and might be charged in the case.
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