A massive explosion at a petrochemical plant in northeastern Spain on Tuesday killed one person and injured at least nine others, three seriously, regional authorities said.
A press spokesman for the port city of Tarragona, where the plant is located, said a preliminary investigation indicated the force of the blast killed a man in a nearby neighborhood.
The spokesman said he had no further details.
Photo: EFE
He spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with city hall regulations.
The regional fire service tweeted that the man had died in a building affected by the blast.
One other person was injured in the building, they said.
Photo: AP
Catalan Minister of the Interior Miquel Buch said that eight workers at the factory were injured, three seriously, and one person remained missing.
Emergency services said that two of the injured were being treated for major burns.
The civil protection agency in the Catalonia region called the blast a “chemical accident” and initially warned people in parts of the city of just more than 130,000 and in nearby towns to refrain from going outside as preventive measures.
The confinement measures were lifted and two roads that had been cordoned off were reopened about three hours after the evening blast.
Buch tweeted that the fire was not toxic, but he advised residents to remain inside.
The blast took place on the premises of IQOXE, according to a woman who answered the telephone at the company and who quickly hung up without giving her name.
According to the company’s Web site, IQOXE is Spain’s sole producer of ethylene oxide, a chemical compound used for making detergents, solvents and other products, as well as glycol, one of the main raw materials in the production of plastics.
Local residents posted videos showing the aftermath of the blast, with flames and a big column of black smoke emerging from an area dotted with big industrial tanks.
Fire departments sent 29 brigades to the area, the regional emergency service said.
It said that firefighters were inspecting the complex’s building structures as well, trying to fully extinguish the fire in one ethylene oxide tank.
Some local residents told Tarragona Radio that the blast could be heard kilometers away.
Tarragona is 115km southwest of Barcelona, the regional capital of Spain’s Catalonia region.
Since 2015, the city has housed a 1,200 hectare “chemical hub,” ChemMed, that was described as the largest of its kind in southern Europe.
The government said that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had been in contact with Catalan President Quim Torra, to inquire about the blast and offer help.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS