5 foreigners, including 3 Chinese missing in steel plant blast in E. India

NEW DELHI - At least five foreign nationals, including three Chinese, were missing after Wednesday's blast furnace explosion at Bhushan steel plant in the eastern Indian state of Odisha's Dhenkanal district, a minister said Saturday.

The foreigners, two from Thailand and three from China, are engineers and were present inside the plant at the time of the blast, the state's Labor and Employees' Insurance Department Minister Bijayshree Routray said in the state capital Bhubaneswar.

He said the government was not in a position to confirm the exact number of people who died or were injured in the mishap as a probe was underway, according to Indo-Asian News Service.

The news is yet to be verified with Chinese Embassy or Consulate officials in India.

"The labor system in the plant is full of flaws. Whereabouts of the five foreigners, present inside the plant, are not known," Routray was quoted as saying.

The explosion occurred Wednesday at about 00:10 a.m. in blast furnace No. 2 of Bhushan Steel Ltd plant in Narendrapur village, about 150 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar.

Plant officials had previously claimed one worker died and 15 others were injured in the blast.

The exact figure of deaths is unknown and trade union officials said 100 were killed in the incident.

The state government began a probe after allegations that the company concealed information regarding the number of dead and injured, and arrested three senior company officials for negligence.

Workers, trade union activists and politicians have been protesting near the plant for days, accusing the company and the government of concealing information.

Several women broke down while searching for their relatives who went missing after the mishap, said local media reports.

At least 98 people in the same plant have died in accidents since 2005, officials said.