Nine detained over pipeline blast

Students attend a class at Chongmingdao Primary School in Qingdao, Shandong province, on Tuesday. The school resumed classes on Monday. Zou Hong / China Daily

Nine people have been taken into custody in connection with the oil pipeline explosion that killed 55 people in Qingdao, Shandong province, and residents still awaited solutions on Tuesday to potential danger.

Seven of the nine people detained are from Sinopec, which owns the pipeline, and two are from the Huangdao Development Zone, the zone authority announced on Monday.

Eight oil containment booms have been preventing the remaining crude oil from contaminating the sea, and the oil is being collected into storage tanks, Sinopec said.

Rumors about punishment for the pipeline leak and explosion have been spreading on the Internet, Qingdao authorities said.

The accident investigation team sent by the State Council is conducting a full investigation into the explosion and will make public the causes and punishment to the people found to be responsible, the authorities said.

On Tuesday morning, soldiers blocked all entrances to the area where the pipeline exploded and the surrounding residential communities.

Zhu Yuhong, 55, a resident of Beihai park community, said people are getting impatient and many plan to go to the Huangdao Development Zone government for solutions and compensation.

"All of our windows were broken. Luckily, no one was at home and none of our family members got injured. But who can guarantee that we would survive another explosion?" Zhu said.

"I couldn't help crying when my 4-year-old grandson phoned me and invited me to move in with them in the future," she said.

"The feeling of living in horror is terrible. The government has to give us a satisfactory solution. Otherwise, we'll fight for our rights," she said.

Xue Mei, 42, a resident of Qianmen community, still gets shaky recalling the blast. She works at Yihe Electricity Co, and the left side of her face was injured by glass fragments.

"I couldn't sleep for several nights because I'd relive the bloody scene as soon as I closed my eyes. A colleague I knew well who was eight months pregnant died in the explosion. Two lives gone within seconds. How can her family get on with life? We need an explanation from the government," she said.

Most of the schools and kindergartens have resumed classes. No students were injured by the blast, and the schools are running normally.

Xie Chuanjiao in Qingdao contributed to this story.