Gas leak kills 2 workers in shipyard

A blast caused by natural gas leakage shatters windows of a shipyard Monday, Dec 30, 2013. (Ti Gong)

Two people died and two others were injured in a blast caused by a natural gas leakage in a shipyard on Chongming Island Monday, officials said.

The accident happened about 7:40am inside a plant of Huarun Dadong Dockyard Co Ltd, where sparks produced by a worker using a grinder ignited leaking flammable natural gas in a manufacturing workshop.

The four workers were grinding and welding. Two of them were very young, a Shanghai Television report said. Natural gas, used for gas cutting, was left in the cabin of a ship in the workshop last night when it leaked, a xinmin.cn reported.

It said the ship was being built for Girocantex Sociedad Anonima, a branch of Brazil firm HDB (Hidrovias Do Brasil) which signed a deal with Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co Ltd to buy 128 iron ore barges.

Authorities are investigating the accident.