Power plant accident in China kills more than 60 people

Two workers rescued alive after power plant’s cooling tower collapsed in eastern China

Workers search through the remains of a collapsed platform in a cooling tower at a power station at Fengcheng, in China’s Jiangxi province. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Workers search through the remains of a collapsed platform in a cooling tower at a power station at Fengcheng, in China’s Jiangxi province. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

More than 60 people were killed on Thursday after a coal-fired power plant's cooling tower collapsed at a building site in Jiangxi province in eastern China.

Only two workers were rescued alive and a third was still missing, state television said.

The accident occurred in Fengcheng at about 7am local time, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The total number of the workers involved in the accident remains unknown, and rescue work is under way.

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Five injured workers were sent to hospital, and 68 people were at the site at the time of the accident.

Fatal accidents and mining disasters are common in China, but public unease has grown after an explosion at a chemical storage facility in the port city of Tianjin last year killed 179 people.

President Xi Jinping said authorities would learn their lesson from the accident in Tianjin.

Clifford Coonan

Clifford Coonan

Clifford Coonan, an Irish Times contributor, spent 15 years reporting from Beijing