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Ammonia leak at Shanghai storage plant kills 15, injures 26

Firemen in protective clothing and masks work at the site of a liquid ammonia leak at a cold storage facility in Baoshan district of Shanghai, Saturday.
Firemen in protective clothing and masks work at the site of a liquid ammonia leak at a cold storage facility in Baoshan district of Shanghai, Saturday.Xi Zhe / EPA

SHANGHAI - A liquid ammonia leak from a refrigeration unit at a cold storage facility in Shanghai on Saturday has killed 15 people and injured 26 others, local authorities said.

The leak occurred at 10:50 am local time Saturday (10:50 p.m. ET) at Shanghai Weng's Cold Storage Industrial Co. Ltd., located in the Baoshan district of eastern Shanghai, the Shanghai municipal government said on its official Sina Weibo account.

Six of those injured were in a critical condition, the government said.

China, the world's second-largest economy, has a poor record on workplace safety. In June, at 120 people died and 77 were injured when a fire engulfed a chicken processing plant in northeastern Jilin province.

Many of China's deadly industrial accidents happen in the huge coal mining industry, in which more than 1,300 people died last year from explosions, mine collapses and floods.