Survivors recall fear, flying glass

Sitting on a simple mattress on the floor, Jili Yigu was still in a panic while receiving a transfusion at a hospital in Xiangshui county, Jiangsu province, on Friday afternoon.

The 36-year-old thought he had been struck by thunder when he heard a big explosion in his sleep. He found himself buried by debris inside the collapsed building where he lived.

"I was on night shift and was sleeping. If it were not a single-floor building, I could have been dead," he said in describing how he survived a blast at the chemical plant where he worked.