X004-RUSIA MUERTOS EXPLOSION PLANTA GAS

Six Chinese nationals were killed and nine more are missing after a fire broke out at a gas chemical complex in Russia's far eastern Amur region, the plant said on Tuesday (August 25).

A total of seven people died and 152 people were treated for injures, including 36 who were rushed to hospitals, the plant said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday.

Video posted on social media on Tuesday (August 25) shows workers at Amur Gas Chemical Complex running away from the building after it catches fire.

The fire, which broke out on Tuesday, was extinguished, it added.

Reuters confirmed the location of the video by the buildings, plant structures, piping and courtyard layout seen in the video which matched satellite imagery of the area. The date when the video was filmed has been confirmed by the official confirmation from the plant saying a fire broke out in the complex on August 25. NASA’s FIRMS (Global Fire Tracking Map) detected atypically high thermal activity in the area of the plant on August 25. The people are wearing work vests with ‘Velesstroy’ on the back, which is the name of the company involved in the gas chemical complex project.

An emergency services plane had arrived to transport the injured to other hospitals in Russia.

The complex, which bills itself as one of the world's largest polyethylene and polypropylene producers, is a joint project of Russian company Sibur and Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec 600028.SS. It has yet to begin operations and was preparing for production start.

Russia frequently relies on foreign labour, including workers from China, for the construction of large industrial and infrastructure projects.

Russia's Investigative Committee said it was investigating the incident as a potential breach of industrial safety regulations and was working to establish the cause of the fire.

The Amur Gas Chemical Complex is expected to produce 2.3 million metric tons of polyethylene and 400,000 tons of polypropylene per year.