Lab blast kills three students in Beijing university

Three students were killed after an explosion set a lab on fire at Beijing Jiaotong University on Wednesday morning, according to Beijing city’s fire department.

The department received a call at 9:34 am, reporting a blast had occurred at a lab for environmental engineering in the No. 2 building of the university’s east campus.

Eight teams of fire fighters and 30 fire-fighting trucks were sent to the site, bringing the fire under control by 10:20 am.

Three students, who were doing an experiment on landfill leachate wastewater treatment in the lab, were killed in the accident, according to a press release by the fire department released on Sina Weibo in the afternoon.

The authorities are investigating the cause of the accident, said the statement.