BEIJING (Reuters) -A powerful blast rocked a residential high-rise building in an affluent district of the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Wednesday, killing one person and sending shockwaves through nearby skyscrapers.
The Shenzhen fire brigade said it had dispatched 16 fire trucks and 80 rescue personnel after receiving a report of the emergency at the residential compound.
A video posted by broadcaster Phoenix TV showed flames engulfing part of the building’s exterior, with dense smoke billowing into the air.
“Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the table shook,” a 30-year-old man surnamed Zhang, who worked at a nearby office building, told Reuters.
The state-run Beijing News reported that a preliminary investigation pointed to a gas explosion on the 28th floor of the building as the cause of the fire, though the exact cause was still being investigated.
At least one person fell off the building after the explosion and was taken away by ambulance, the report said.
The blast occurred in a high-end condominium in an area where the headquarters of major companies including Tencent are located.
Further details of the situation were being verified, state broadcaster CCTV said.
(Reporting by Ethan Wang, Yukun Zhang, Qiaoyi Li and Ryan Woo; editing by Christopher Cushing and Mark Heinrich)
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