MOSCOW, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Six Chinese nationals were killed and nine more are missing after a fire broke out at a gas chemical complex in Russia’s far eastern Amur region, the plant said on Wednesday.
A total of seven people died and 152 people were treated for injures, including 36 who were rushed to hospitals, the plant said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday.
The fire, which broke out on Tuesday, was extinguished, it added.
An emergency services plane had arrived to transport the injured to other hospitals in Russia.
The complex, which bills itself as one of the world’s largest polyethylene and polypropylene producers, is a joint project of Russian company Sibur and Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec. It has yet to begin operations and was preparing for production start.
Russia frequently relies on foreign labour, including workers from China, for the construction of large industrial and infrastructure projects.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it was investigating the incident as a potential breach of industrial safety regulations and was working to establish the cause of the fire.
The Amur Gas Chemical Complex is expected to produce 2.3 million metric tons of polyethylene and 400,000 tons of polypropylene per year.
(Reporting by Marina Bobrova and Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Stephen Coates)
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