

Fifteen were killed and eight injured after a massive explosion rocked an isolated hillside gambling den in Laoshan village, Guizhou province. Police are investigating the blast, the den’s attendees, and the—apparently thriving—world of underground betting in Southwest China.

The explosion occurred on Monday afternoon, while a group of gamblers were gathered under a tent. The cause of the blast is still unknown, but whatever it was, it left a two-meter wide “suspicious crater.”

Speaking to the Global Times, village residents expressed shock and horror at the event:

[A local woman] went to the blast site immediately after receiving the call. She found her husband with blood on his face and there were corpses nearby.

“I heard that they were playing the ‘Gundilong’ gambling game in the den,” she added. Gundilong is played using a big box and dice.

Gambling games have been found in remote areas in Guizhou and some other regions in China.

According to a villager who asked to remain anonymous, the gambling den was set up in the first half of last year and was generally visited by people from other places that had driven to the site.

Police have detained eight suspects and are investigating what the hell just happened.

[Image via Flickr]



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