At least 13 people have died and 46 were left injured after an explosion at a Chinese-funded nickel processing plant in Indonesia.
Local authorities confirmed that the accident happened at around 5.30am local time on Saturday in the Morowali Industrial Park on the island of Sulawesi.
The fire was extinguished just after 9.30am.
The island is a hub for the country’s production of nickel, a base metal used to make electric vehicle batteries and stainless steel.
A total of 13 people died, including nine Indonesian workers and four workers from China, a spokesperson for Morowali said.
The furnace was shut off the day before to prepare for maintenance, they said, but during the maintenance process excess iron slag flowed from the furnace.
“The furnace walls then collapsed and the remaining iron slag flowed out, causing a fire and resulting in some workers at the location suffering injuries and even fatalities,” spokesperson Dedy Kurniawan said in the statement.
He added: “We sincerely apologise for this incident and we are working closely with authorities to investigate what caused the accident.”
Local police chief Agus Nugroho said the blast was so powerful it demolished the furnace and damaged parts of the side walls of the building.
It was the latest in a series of deadly incidents at nickel smelting plants in Indonesia that are part of China's ambitious transnational development program, known as the Belt and Road Initiative.
In January, two workers were killed at a nickel smelting plant in the same industrial park after a riot broke out in protest over safety conditions.
Data collected by the Mining Advocacy Network, an Indonesian watchdog, showed that at least 22 workers from China and Indonesia have died in nickel smelting plants in Central Sulawesi province since 2019, including two Chinese nationals who committed suicide.
