An 11-year-old pupil was
seriously injured on January 22 after he lit a string of firecrackers and threw
it into a drain at the side of a road in Panjin, Liaoning.
When the firecrackers exploded inside the drain, the cover was blown off,
soaring 10 meters into the air. The boy was standing too close to the drain, and
the force of the explosion threw him back, and he fractured the base of his
skull. He was taken to hospital and has since been released.
The severity of the accident, experts said, might have been caused by the
thick marsh gas inside the sewer. The lighted firecrackers the boy threw down
the drain ignited the marsh gas, which then caused the powerful explosion.
(Liaoshen Evening News)