Report: TNT Sparked China Karaoke Blast

BEIJING – A Chinese coal mine owner who ran a karaoke parlor where 25 people were killed in a giant explosion stored more than a ton of explosives in the basement, a report said Friday.

Qu Hua died in the blast that leveled the two-story building and buried nearby cars in rubble, the Beijing News reported. Police were questioning Qu’s wife and some of his employees, it reported.

Birthday revelers and students celebrating the end of exams were among the dead, it reported.

Forty-one people were injured by Thursday’s blast in Tianshifu township in Liaoning province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Police estimate more than a ton of TNT recently produced at a local factory sparked the blast, the Beijing News said, noting more than 300 coal mines run in the area.

China has suffered a string of blasts, fires and accidents in shopping malls, cinemas and other public places despite repeated government promises to improve safety. Many are blamed on lax safety procedures and negligence.

A police official at the Benxi County Public Security Bureau who refused to give her name said she and her colleagues didn’t know any details about the blast or the investigation, and refused to pass the call to anyone else or give another phone number.

In April 2006, a cache of explosives improperly stored in a hospital by a coal mine owner exploded, killing 35 people in the northern city of Yuanping, in Shanxi province.