TEHRAN, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A blast and a consequent fire at a cosmetics factory in northern Iran injured 53 people and damaged the factory's building and equipment on Tuesday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The explosion of a gas cylinder used for filling cosmetic sprays sparked the fire at the factory in Simin Dasht Industrial Park in Fardis County, Alborz province, Fars cited the county's fire department chief Hossein Ashouri as saying.
All the injured people, some of whom were in critical condition, had been transferred to the hospital, Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted Ahmad Mahdavi, head of the provincial medical emergency organization, as saying.
According to Ashouri, the fire broke out at 15:00 local time (1130 GMT) and was put out by 25 firefighters with nine fire engines. No one was killed in the incident, he added.
With a population of 800,000, Fardis County is located southeast of the provincial capital Karaj. ■
