Japan: Explosion kills one, injures 59 others at Kyoto fireworks festival
A fireworks explosion outside of Kyoto, Japan on Thursday, which resulted in some 60 injuries, was the cause of at least one fatality, according to a Channel News Asia report today.
The explosion that ripped through a row of food stalls at a summer fireworks festival Thursday evening in Fukuchiyama, Kyoto Prefecture has also left 18 people with serious burn injuries including two children.
The first reported death, a 44-year-old woman who suffered severe burns in the explosion, passed away at a local hospital where she was receiving treatment for her injuries.
Japanese officials report that the ages for the injured victims range from 3 to 85.
The blast, which is still under investigation, occurred at around 7:30 p.m., just before the start of the fireworks, in the main viewing venue on the banks of the Yura River in Fukuchiyama.
Channel News Asia reports police suspect that the explosion occurred when a vendor at one of some 350 stalls at the site opened the cap of a petrol container to refill an electric generator, press reports said.
The highly pressurized petrol was sprayed over a wide area, causing gas cylinders to blow up and three of the stalls went up in flames.
The police plan to question the stall operator, who was injured in the blast and taken to a hospital, on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in injuries, the sources said.
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WTF does North Korea have to do with this story?