China arrests 27 after deadly night club explosion

Beijing, Aug 7: Chinese police have arrested 27 people in connection with a dynamite explosion that levelled a night club last month killing 25 guests and passersby, Xinhua news agency said today.

The July 4 blast happened when mining explosives stored in the vault of the two-storey club in Benxi in the northeastern province of Liaoning ''self-ignited'', police said.

The victims included teenagers having a birthday party in the karaoke bar, men in the bath house and pedestrians and drivers passing by. More than 30 people were injured and 462 nearby homes in the Tianshifu township damaged.

The 27 suspects had received formal arrest warrants on charges of ''illegally making, dealing, shipping and storing the explosives'', which Chinese media said could have weighed about a tonne judging from the damage.

Chinese media said that club owner Qu Yijie, who was killed in the blast, had run several of the 300-400 licensed or unlicensed coal mines in Tianshifu.

The explosion was the latest instance of lax safety in densely populated mining areas that has brought disaster in the past.

In 2005, a cache of mining explosives in the home of a mine manager blew up and killed 20, including children at a nearby school, in the northern province of Shanxi.

In 2006, explosives kept in a hospital by a coal mine owner exploded and killed 35 people in Shanxi, where a quarter of China's coal is produced.

Reuters>