Late reports

13.11, explosion at chemical factory, pollution

China: an explosion at a petrochemical plant seriously polluted a river which led authorities to shut off water supplies in one of its biggest cities for at least four days. Five people were killed in the blast. Ten thousand people were evacuated from the area. Residents of Harbin, capital of far northeastern Heilongjiang province, were jamming the airport and rail stations to get out. The explosion happened in neighbouring Jilin province only a few hundred yards from the Songhua River, which supplies water to Harbin, a metropolitan area of nine million people. Three million people live in the city itself. Taps were turned off in Harbin after two days of panic buying of bottled water and food. More than 16,000 tonnes of drinking water was brought into Harbin by road.