XUZHOU, China -- An explosion outside a kindergarten in eastern China killed at least seven people and injured nearly 70 on Thursday, leaving a chaotic scene as dozens, some clutching children, were thrown to the ground.
Images of dazed and injured people outside the Chuangxin kindergarten on the outskirts of Xuzhou, a city in the province of Jiangsu, circulated on Chinese social media.
By Thursday evening, the Feng County government in Xuzhou said 66 people had been hurt, including nine with serious injuries, in addition to the seven confirmed dead. Some local news reports described the cause as a possible gas tank explosion, but the police urged the public not to jump to conclusions.
It remained unclear whether any of the dead or injured were from the kindergarten, a brightly painted building near housing built for poor residents. Officials suggested that none of the casualties were from the kindergarten itself.
"According to an initial check, the kindergarten was in class, and there were no casualties among its teachers and pupils," Feng County authorities said online.
The timing of the explosion intensified worries about whether any children from the kindergarten had been affected. It happened shortly before 5 p.m., when parents and other relatives appeared to have gathered at the entrance, waiting for children to go home for the day. It is possible that the parents and grandparents who had gathered to pick up the children had toddlers with them.
A reporter for People's Daily, an official newspaper, visited one of the hospitals that took in people injured outside the kindergarten, and it said online that they were "all older people in their 50s and 60s who were waiting to pick up children."
Police officers stood guard early today outside the kindergarten, which sits in the middle of a tree-lined residential area, next to a seafood market and small shops.
Families gathered at nearby hospitals through the night, awaiting word of loved ones. A woman who declined to provide her name said she was there in search of her sister, who had been waiting outside the school when the explosion occurred. She said she had dialed her sister's phone number repeatedly but could not get through.
"I don't know where my sister is," she said. "All I can do is wait here."
Xuzhou is an industrial city that lies at the intersection of China's main rail lines leading south from Beijing with an important rail line from the east coast that runs to Central Asia. It is a large center for the manufacture of construction equipment and also has extensive military facilities because of its role as a rail hub.
The blast follows other incidents that fueled public anger and fears about safety around schools.
In 2001, Zhu Rongji, then the prime minister, apologized about an explosion at a rural schoolhouse in southeast China that killed 42 people, including 38 children. Zhu had initially dismissed reports, which turned out to be true, that the children had been making fireworks.
In 2010, nearly 20 children were killed in attacks on schools, prompting a response from top government officials and leading many schools to beef up security with the posting of guards and the installation of gates and other barriers.
Last year, a knife-wielding assailant injured seven students outside a primary school in a northern city.
But officials made no suggestion that the explosion Thursday was deliberate and asked people to wait for the results of a full investigation.
Information for this article was contributed by Chris Buckley, Keith Bradsher and Iris Zhao of The New York Times and by staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/16/2017