people, according to Chinese state media.
Almost 200 people were injured in the blast in Kunshan, a city in the
eastern province of Jiangsu, China's official Xinhua news agency said.
Pictures posted online showed people with burns sitting on the ground
outside a factory complex from which black smoke was billowing.
Xinhua said five company employees had been detained.
The factory belonged to the Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Products company.
The company manufactures car parts and employs about 450 workers. Its
clients include US giant General Motors, CCTV reported.
State media reports say that explosion took place inside a wheel hub
polishing workshop and that 264 workers were at the site at the time
of the explosion.
Xinhua said 44 people had died immediately and the total of injured
stood at 187.
Initial reports suggested the explosion, which was heard several
kilometres away, occurred when a flame was lit in a dust-filled room.
Glass was shattered up to 500 metres away.
Kunshan is about an hour's drive from Shanghai, where some of the
injured were taken for treatment. Others were taken to Suzhou.
One doctor on the Weibo microblog account of CCTV said: "In my 20
years of work, I've never seen so many patients with burns on over 80%
of their bodies."
Industrial accidents are relatively common in China, says the BBC's
John Sudworth in Shanghai, although figures show safety in some
industries has been improving in recent years.
Some 119 people died in a fire at a poultry plant in northern Jilin
province in June last year.
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