BUDAPEST, May 22 (Xinhua) -- An explosion and subsequent fire occurred on Friday morning at a petrochemical base of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL in Tiszaujvaros, northeastern Hungary, leaving one person dead and nine others injured. The fire at the scene has been extinguished, according to the Hungarian news agency MTI.
One of the nine had life-threatening injuries, four had serious injuries and four suffered minor burns, Pal Gyorfi, spokesman for the National Ambulance Service, told MTI.
Hungary's Minister of Economy and Energy Istvan Kapitany confirmed on social media that the explosion took place at 8:47 a.m. local time, when the facility was preparing to restart its Olefin-1 plant.
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar expressed condolences to the family of the deceased and wished the injured a speedy recovery in a post on social media. He said that MOL Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernadi and Kapitany had headed to the scene.
At a press conference in the afternoon, Hernadi said that a hydrocarbon pipeline had exploded during maintenance, adding that there was no indication of outside intervention.
Following the accident, local disaster management authorities and firefighters from nearby Miskolc were dispatched to carry out rescue operations. The National Ambulance Service sent three helicopters and a number of ambulances to the scene to transport the injured.
Treatment of the injured started within three minutes of the explosion, Hernadi said. "MOL and government experts will work together to identify the cause of the accident," he added.
The research by disaster protection authorities at the site indicated that the volume of hazardous substance in the air posed no risk to local residents, MTI reported. ■
