Chemical Plant Fire Near Beijing Kills 3, Injures 64

A massive fire in a suburban chemical plant here left three people dead and dozens injured, city officials said Saturday.

The blaze erupted at 9:30 p.m. Friday in a storage-container area of the Dongfang Chemical Factory in Beijing’s Tongzhou district, said a city spokesman who identified himself as Mr. Sun. Three people were killed and 64 were injured, 12 of them seriously.

Flames and pillars of black smoke continued to billow from the site, about 20 miles east of downtown Beijing, throughout Saturday morning. Firefighters contained the blaze by late afternoon, Sun said. Municipal leaders also scurried to the scene of the blaze, the cause of which remained under investigation.

The incident came just three days before the hand-over of Hong Kong to Chinese control and amid tightened security throughout the capital in anticipation of the event. Authorities fear that restive groups may try to mar the mood of national celebration.

The central government has put both the People’s Liberation Army and the police on high alert to guard against any unrest, whether from ethnic separatists or the growing ranks of China’s unemployed. In February, deadly rioting broke out in China’s western Xinjiang province, home of a Turkic-speaking minority group seeking independence, during the official mourning period for the country’s late “paramount leader,” Deng Xiaoping.

In March, Beijing was rocked by two explosions--one of which, aboard a bus, killed two people in a popular shopping district. And last month, an unhappy worker committed suicide using a homemade bomb in a local park near the central government compound.

The Communist leadership has reportedly ordered state-run media to avoid negative news before Monday night’s Hong Kong hand-over celebrations. News of the chemical plant fire was not reported by any of Beijing’s newspapers Saturday or by the official New China News Agency.