At least 69 people have been killed in an explosion at a Chinese factory that supplies the western car company General Motors.

The blast in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, left at least 180 more workers injured including many with severe burns, their clothes stripped off their backs.

Footage shot by residents showed huge plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the plant as the blackened and scorched bodies of victims were lifted onto the back of large trucks.

It is believed fine dust used to polish car hubcaps caught alight in the air, sparking a fatal blast which rippled across the factory floor.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

Blast: Around 69 people have been killed and 187 more injured in an explosion at a car parts factory in China

A survivor waits for help inside the door of a bus (left) while another burns victim is taken to hospital (right)

Burns: Many of the survivors gathered on wooden pallets with serious burns to their bodies clearly visible

Rescue: Burns specialists were drafted in from Shanghai and emergency blood donor centres were set up

Burns: Many of the victims lost large parts of their skin in China's most serious industrial accident this year

Victim: Medics tend to one of the more seriously injured workers in the factory, which employed hundreds

Broken windows at the factory blast site in Kunshan, China, where at least 69 people have been killed

The bodies of victims killed in the explosion at the factory of Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Products Co are placed on a truck in Kunshan city, east China's Jiangsu province

Many of the bodies were blackened by burns or a covering of soot.

Some survivors were seen sitting on wooden cargo platforms on the road outside the factory, their clothes apparently burned off and skin exposed, or being carried into ambulances.

The factory is operated by the Zhongrong Metal Products Company, a Taiwanese enterprise that according to its website was set up in 1998 and has a registered capital of £5.2million.

Its core business is coating and polishing aluminium alloy wheel hubs for General Motors and other firms.

At least 69 workers died and up to 180 were injured after an explosion and fire ripped through the factory

Workers injured in the explosion wait for medical treatment at the gate of the factory

Residents donate blood on a voluntary blood donation vehicle (left) and (right) staff prepare blood plasma



Zhou Xu, 26, who worked nearby, said: 'We heard a really loud blast at about 7 a.m. this morning so we rushed out of our dormitories.

'First the ambulance came, then as the news surfaced in the media, many families - especially the wives - rushed to the site to see if their husbands were okay.'

One security guard said the blast shattered the windows of his guard house half a kilometre away.



Medical staff transfer a victim of the factory blast to a hospital in Kunshan following the factory explosion

The explosion occurred at 7.37am (12.37am UK time) at a workshop in the factory that polishes wheel hubs

Bodies: Victims were piled onto the back of a flat-bed truck (left) as firefighters doused the factory itself (right)

Distressing: The scene outside the factory, captured on witnesses' mobile phones, was one of chaos

Help: It is believed the explosion happened when fine hubcap polish dust caught fire on the main factory floor

There were more than 200 workers at the site when the blast occurred, the city's government told the state-owned Xinhua News Agency.

More than 120 people who were injured have been sent to hospitals in Kunshan and the nearby city of Suzhou.

Burns experts were drafted in from Shanghai 40 miles away to aid in the disaster and the authorities are believed to have set up four emergency blood donation centres.

The explosion occurred at 7.37am (12.37am UK time) at a workshop in the factory that polishes wheel hubs.

Rescuers pulled out more than 40 bodies and around 20 other people died in hospital, Xinhua said.

Cordon: As victims were rushed into emergency wards, two company executives were reportedly held

Treatment: Authorities are investigating the cause of the blast at the factory which supplied western car firms

At least 180 people were injured in the blast alongside the 69 who died. An estimated 200 were inside the plant

Hospital: There was an anxious wait for hundreds of relatives in the city as the workers were treated

Donation: Locals have been urged to give blood to top up supplies for treatment of the factory disaster's victims

It is believed the explosion was caused when fine particles of the dust and powdered metal used to polish hubcaps caught alight in the air.

They could have to come into contact with a spark, an overheated surface or electrical discharge from machinery.

If the air was dense with dust, the explosion would have rippled across the factory floor.

Kunshan is about 600 miles south east of Beijing.

Calls to the city's government, police and the firm by the Associated Press went unanswered this morning. General Motors confirmed the factory is part of its network of suppliers.

Authorities have held five senior employees to assist in the investigation, it was reported.

Standing guard: Policeman blocked a road near the blast site as residents and relatives waited for news

Investigation: An image released by the state-owned Xinhua news agency showed firefighters at the scene

Factory: Scorch marks could be seen on the walls of the building and the roof appeared to have collapsed

Horror: The explosion happened in the city of Kunshan in eastern China, about 40 miles away from Shanghai

Workplace safety is a major problem in China - the world's second-largest economy - where regulations are often ignored.

The blast is the country's worst industrial accident since June last year, when a fire at a chicken slaughterhouse in the northeast province of Jilin in June 2013 killed 119 people.

Thought to have been started by an ammonia leak, it was blamed on poor management, lack of government oversight and locked or blocked exits.

Sixty-two people were also killed and scores injured in the eastern port city of Qingdao in November when a pipeline exploded.