Rescue workers try to put out a fire after an explosion at a chemical plant inside an industrial park in Yibin, Sichuan province, China.
A major explosion at a chemical plant in southwestern China has killed 19 people and injured 12, authorities said on Friday, the latest deadly industrial incident in the world's largest producer of chemicals.
It comes amid a drive to strengthen industrial safety, with China ramping up checks over the last year, in the wake of some high-profile incidents at coal mines and chemical plants.
The cause of Thursday evening's blast at Yibin Hengda Technology in an industrial park several hours southeast of Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, is not yet known, the local government in Jiang'an county said.
Municipal workers in Japan struggled on Friday to restore water supply in the flood-hit western region a week after inundation caused by a record downpour killed more than 200 people in the worst weather disaster in 36 years.Communities that grappled with rising floodwaters last week now find themselves battling scorching summer temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius (86°F), as foul-smelling garbage piles up in mud-splattered streets."We need the water supply back," said Hiroshi Oka, 40, a resident helping to clean up the Mabi district in one of the hardest-hit areas, the city of Kurashiki, where more than 200,000 households have gone without water for a week."What we are getting is a thin stream of water, and we can't flush toilets or wash our hands," he added, standing over a 20-litre (4.4-gallon) plastic tank that was only partly filled after almost four hours of waiting.Japan flood toll nears 200, sun scorches thousands battling thirstWater supply has been restored to some parts of the district, a city official told Reuters, but he did not know when normal operation would resume, as engineers are still trying to locate water pipeline ruptures.The soaring temperatures have fuelled concern that residents, many still in temporary evacuation centres, may suffer heat strokes or illness as hygiene levels deteriorate.Public broadcaster NHK has spread advice on coping with high temperatures and maintain hygiene, such as a video tutorial on how to make a diaper from a towel and plastic shopping bag.More than 70,000 military, police and firefighters have fanned out to tackle the aftermath of the floods. There have been 204 deaths, the government said, with dozens still missing.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government spokesman, urged people in flood-hit areas to take precautions against the heat, and guard against thunderstorms."People still need to be aware of the possibility of further landslides," he told a regular news conference on Friday.Severe weather has increasingly battered Japan in recent years, including similar floods last year that killed dozens of people, raising questions about the impact of global warming.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who cancelled a scheduled overseas trip to deal with the rescue effort, visited Kurashiki on Thursday, and said he aimed to visit other flood-damaged areas on Friday and over the weekend. 
Japan struggles to restore water supply to flood-hit towns as temperatures soar
"I heard seven explosions in ten minutes," an eyewitness told domestic news agency Beijing News. "It took a couple dozen firefighter trucks to put out the fire."
The injured are in stable condition and an investigation has begun, state news agency Xinhua said.
The company, which makes chemicals for the food and pharmaceutical industries, did not immediately answer telephone calls from Reuters to seek information.
Photographs on Chinese social media showed a huge fire and plumes of smoke rising from the facility. The fire, which broke out early on Thursday evening, was put out by 11:30 p.m. (1530 GMT), the government said in its statement.
The Donald Trump administration announced Thursday it has reunited a little more than half of the children under 5 years of age with parents whom it separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.In all, the administration reunified 57 of the 103 undocumented children it separated, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.The additional 46 were found to be ineligible by a court or the administration due to a broad range of factors.The bulk of those who were found to be ineligible -- 24 -- were determined not currently eligible due to the status of their corresponding adults. Half of the adults have already been deported and the administration is working to contact them. Eleven others are either in custody for other unspecified offenses, while the last adult's whereabouts are unknown.Video: Immigrant child reunited with father after US officials separated themStill, 22 other children were deemed unsuitable for reunification due to safety concerns posed by the adults the children would be returned to, including 11 who have serious criminal histories, according to the administration.Seven other adults were determined to not be a parent. One adult had a falsified birth certification. One allegedly abused a child. Another planned to house the child with an individual charged with sexually abusing a minor. The last adult listed by the administration is being treated for a communicable disease."There remains a tremendous amount of hard work and similar obstacles facing our teams in reuniting the remaining families," Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, said in a rare joint statement.Their departments were responsible for the reunifications after the administration chose to separate the children from their families under President Donald Trump's hardline "zero tolerance" immigration crackdown."The Trump administration does not approach this mission lightly, and we intend to continue our good faith efforts to reunify families," the trio of department heads added.The administration missed a Tuesday deadline to complete the reunifications for children under 5 whom it separated. Following Thursday's announcement, the administration faces another deadline July 26 to reunite the remainder of the more than 2,000 children who remain separated from their families.Trump's hardline immigration policy refers all apprehended undocumented adults for criminal prosecution -- a break with past administrations who limited criminal referral for most adults who illegally cross into the U.S. with their juvenile family members.A court ruled earlier this week that the administration cannot detain immigrant families long-term, upholding a 20-day time limit a child can be held in custody, and casting into doubt the future of Trump's immigration agenda.U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee said in her ruling that the administration's reasoning is "tortured" and a "cynical attempt" to shift immigration enforcement duties to the judiciary.
US says reunification of young migrants completed
"I heard a big explosion, it was really loud and I felt the ground shaking," Liu Ping, a manager from the industrial park told China Newsweek, who was in his office at the time of the eruption.
"My first response was that something was wrong and I went the window and saw thick smoke rising from the east."
A trio of three-storey buildings were reduced to their steel frames by the explosion, the Sichuan Daily newspaper said, citing eyewitness accounts. Footage on its website on Friday afternoon showed the skeleton of the burnt-out buildings.
An explosion at a chemical plant in China has killed 19 people and injured 12, state media said on Friday (July 13), the latest deadly industrial incident in the world's largest producer of chemicals.
Blast in chemical plant in China kills 19, injures 12
The plant has three production lines, making 300 tonnes per year (tpy) of benzoic acid, which is used in food preservatives, and 2,000 tpy of 5-nitroisophthalic acid, for medicines and dyes, the regional environmental protection bureau says.
China's breakneck pace of economic growth during the last decade has resulted in a spate of industrial accidents.
In 2015, an explosion in a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin killed 165 people. Last year, a blast at a petrochemical plant in eastern Shandong province killed eight people and injured nine.