Four people were confirmed dead after an explosion in a Shanghai gas station on Saturday morning, Xinhua quoted police and witnesses as saying. Dozens of people were also injured in the incident but by Saturday night, all but two had been discharged from two area hospitals. One of the injured, who remained at the Punan hospital, suffered head injuries. Another was receiving treatment at the Renji hospital for elbow fractures, hospital sources said. Both were listed in stable condition. Roads around the scene of the accident were re-opened to traffic after workers removed the debris and broken glass. Local police said two maintenance workers at the station and two passers-by, one of whom was a cyclist, were among the dead. The cyclist, a man, died when he was struck on the head by a hail of debris from the blast, although he was about one kilometer from the site. An unidentified woman was also killed in the accident. Investigators initially blamed the accident on improper operations by the workers, who were doing maintenance work on the storage facility at the gas station at No. 909, Third Pudong Road. The explosion, reported at 7:50 a.m., caused strong shockwaves that damaged a bus and injured several of its passengers. The shockwaves also shattered windows in a supermarket and several residential buildings nearby, Xinhua journalists reported. The gas station, an outlet of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), was reportedly under renovation and was to re-open later this month. CNPC's Shanghai branch declined comment.
