An explosion at an illegal fireworks factory in northeast China's Liaoning Province killed at least 35 workers yesterday, the State Administration of Work Safety reported. Another 45 were injured, 19 of them in serious conditions.

　　The blast occurred at the fireworks manufacturer in Changtu County, Liaoning Province, minutes before 10am.

　　As of last night, rescue workers had retrieved 35 bodies from the rubble, according to the national watchdog for work safety.

　　The death toll could rise as the cleanup continued at the scene. Rescuers discovered torn-off feets and hands of the victims in the rubble from time to time, local witnesses said.

　　All the victims were workers at the facility located in Shuangmiaozi, a town bordering Jilin Province.

　　Most of the victims, in their 20s and 30s, are local rural migrant laborers, officials said.

　　Police are hunting for the factory's legal representative, Chen Haoyan.

　　Chen, who was on a business trip in downtown Changtu at the time of the mishap, returned to the factory after hearing of the accident but later "disappeared," local people said. The 47-year-old was formerly an associate professor in eastern China's Jiangxi Province.

　　The factory, established this summer, hadn't passed safety checks, said local authorities.

　　The blast leveled 2,000 square meters of factory workshops and tore apart the top floor of a four-story office building.

　　Some residential buildings located more than 100 meters away from the blast, also caught fire. Firefighters had extinguished the blaze.

　　Officials from the administration and the ministries of Public Security and Supervision will form an investigation team to look into the cause of the accident.

　　Police were still investigating the cause of the blast yesterday.

　　China's fireworks industry suffers hundreds of deaths annually in fires and explosions.

　　The industry employs tens of thousands of people, mainly in the poor rural areas. In the labor-intensive industry much of the work is done by hand.

　　The death toll has soared this year despite repeated government promises to tighten safety.

　　Safety officials said the number of people killed in fireworks-related accidents jumped 29 percent in the first nine months to at least 209.