Shanghai media reports on Thursday said the victims included high school students and the elderly.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for “all-out efforts” in treating the injured. He also urged investigators to establish the cause of the incident and for those responsible to be punished.
At noon on Thursday, state news agency Xinhua reported that nine people, including the restaurant’s owner, shareholders and staff, had been detained by Ningxia police, and its assets frozen.
According to the Yinchuan government’s official WeChat account, the explosion happened as the chef was replacing the valve on the gas tank, about an hour after staff reported smelling a leak.
Smoke billows from a barbecue restaurant in the northwestern Chinese region of Ningxia on Wednesday after a deadly gas explosion. Photo: Weibo
The emergency management ministry has sent a working group to the site, its official website said.
Party newspaper Ningxia Daily said the local government has set up a team to investigate the blast.
According to Xinhua, 64 families in the vicinity have been moved into hotels, while a video recorded near the scene by The Beijing News showed nearby roads and shops still closed at noon on Thursday.
This is the deadliest explosion in China since March 2019, when an explosion at a chemical plant in the eastern province of Jiangsu killed 78 people.
China’s last fatal gas blast occurred in June 2021 in the central province of Hubei’s Shiyan city, when a gas pipe explosion in a vegetable market killed 26.
Four months after the explosion, authorities said the company in charge of maintaining the pipeline were negligent and 11 people were arrested.
