One person was killed and three others injured in a chemical plant blast in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Thursday morning, Xinhua News Agency quoted a local government official today, and a resulting benzene leak has hospitalized a further seven.

The blast took place in Dianjiang County at around 11:00 AM at the No.1 workshop of Yingte Chemical Company, which mainly produces intermediate medical products, said Gao Yonglu, head of the county Administration for Workplace Safety Supervision.

Initial analysis found that excess hydrogen peroxide may have led to the blast.

The three injured by the explosion have been hospitalized.

Since then, another seven people, including six students, have been poisoned by benzene and are receiving medical care in the local hospital. A doctor from the hospital said they are not in a critical condition.

The chemical plant is 8 kilometers from Dianjiang's county seat.

Warnings of benzene contamination have been placed along the banks of a local river, and people have been forbidden from taking water from a 20-kilometer stretch of it.

Two nearby schools have suspended classes and some 5,400 students have been evacuated along with thousands of villagers nearby.

The local environmental department is monitoring the quality of the environment.

(Xinhua News Agency November 25, 2005)