Seven people have been injured, four critically, in a fire and explosions at a recycling yard in Hong Kong, forcing the evacuation of 300 people, including students and teachers on a nearby school trip.
The blaze broke out at 11.01am on Thursday in a recycling yard at the junction of Ting Kok Road and Fung Yuen Road in Tai Po district.
According to the Fire Services Department, it started in a scrap metal compactor housed inside a two-storey iron-sheet structure.
The department deployed two water jets and two teams of firefighters and extinguished the blaze at 12.37pm.
Of the seven injured, one was a firefighter, four were men, and two were women.
Three men with serious burns were sent to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin and were in critical condition on Thursday night.
One of the women was also listed as critical at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam.
The firefighter was taken to Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital in Tai Po and later discharged.
A woman who had a panic attack was treated on site.
More than 300 people, including 100 students and teachers on a school trip, fled the area as smoke spread.
The department believed the fire was linked to the mishandling of small aerosol cans and the excessive storage of oxy-acetylene cylinders.
Online footage shows orange flames rising above trees near village houses, with thick black smoke billowing into the sky. Another clip shows black smoke engulfing the site and spreading upwards.
Police received multiple reports of heavy smoke at the site and deployed 60 officers. Traffic control measures were also put in place along Ting Kok Road near Dai Fat Street and Fung Yuen Road.
Authorities also urged members of the public affected by the smoke and odour to stay indoors and close their doors and windows. -- South China Morning Post
