A fire at a plant in central China killed 36 people and two were missing, state media said on Tuesday, citing local authorities.

The fire broke out at a plant in Anyang city, Henan province, on Monday afternoon, the Xinhua News Agency reported, without giving further details.

State media said emergency services first received reports of a fire at Kaixinda Trading Co., Ltd. at 4:22 p.m. (0822 GMT).

“Upon receiving the alarm, the city fire department immediately dispatched emergency services to the scene,” CCTV reported.

“Public security, emergency response, city government and power supply units simultaneously rushed to the scene to conduct emergency response and rescue work,” it said, adding that the fire was extinguished around 11 p.m. local time.

Footage of the scene shared by state media showed thick plumes of black smoke from the fire, with at least two trucks positioned to fight the blazes.

In addition to those dead and missing, two were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, CCTV said.

Authorities said “criminal suspects” had been taken into custody in connection with the fire, but gave no further details.

No information was given about the cause of the fire.

Industrial accidents are commonplace in China due to weak safety standards and corruption among enforcement officials.

News of the fire in the city of Anyang on Monday followed reports of an explosion at a chemical plant in nearby Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province.

Videos posted to social media showed a fire at the industrial site spewing thick gray smoke into the sky.

Other images showed nearby buildings strewn with broken glass and terrified locals fleeing the blast.

“Personnel have been dispatched to the scene, the fire has been extinguished and the death toll is not yet known,” Dahebao – an official daily from neighboring Henan – reported on the Twitter-like Weibo platform, citing authorities.

In June, an explosion at a chemical plant in Shanghai killed one and injured another.

The fire at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. plant in remote Jinshan District sent thick plumes of smoke across a vast industrial area as three blazes blazed in separate locations, turning the sky black.

And last year, a gas explosion killed 25 people and reduced several buildings in downtown Shiyan to rubble.

In March 2019, an explosion at a chemical plant in Yancheng, 260 kilometers from Shanghai, killed 78 people and devastated houses in a radius of several kilometers.

Four years earlier, a massive explosion at a chemical warehouse north of Tianjin killed 165 people in one of the worst industrial accidents in China.