TOKYO: A sudden explosion from a suspected gas leak blew out walls and windows in part of a northern Japanese town Thursday morning, killing one person and injuring 17 others.
There was no sign of a fire and investigators at the suspect a gas leak may have cause the blast, Koriyama fire department official Hiroki Ogawa said. Local media say a gas leak and explosion occurred at a restaurant.
So far, one person was confirmed dead and 17 others have been taken to hospitals. Two of them were seriously injured, Ogawa said.
The area has been closed off and neighbors have been evacuated.
NHK footage showed only a skeleton left of a building, the steel structure gnawed and pieces of wall and glass scattered around. Several employees and customers at a nearby bank were injured, NHK said.
The explosion occurred in a crowded business and commercial district close to the city’s main train station, where hospitals, schools and the city hall are also located.
“I heard a ‘boom!’ and felt the ground shaking, so I thought it was an earthquake, but the shaking didn’t last very long so I realized it wasn’t,” an employee at nearby Kuwano Kyoritsu Hospital told NHK. Nobody was injured at the hospital, although some of its windows were shattered.
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Suspected gas leak in northern Japan kills 1, injures 17
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Suspected gas leak in northern Japan kills 1, injures 17
- The cause of the explosion is still unknown
Trump to remove Vietnam from restricted tech list: Hanoi
HANOI: US President Donald Trump told Vietnam’s top leader To Lam he would “instruct the relevant agencies” to remove the country from a list restricted from accessing advanced US technologies, Vietnam’s government announced Saturday.
The two leaders met in person for the first time at the White House on Friday, after Lam attended the inaugural meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Washington.
“Donald Trump said he would instruct the relevant agencies to soon remove Vietnam from the strategic export control list,” Hanoi’s Government News website said.
The two countries were locked in protracted trade negotiations when the US Supreme Court ruled many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs were illegal.
Three Vietnamese airlines announced nearly $37 billion in purchases this week, in a series of contracts signed with US aerospace companies.
Fledgling airline Sun PhuQuoc Airways placed an order for 40 of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, a long-haul aircraft, with an estimated total value of $22.5 billion, while national carrier Vietnam Airlines placed an $8.1 billion order for around 50 Boeing 737-8 aircraft.
When Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, Vietnam had the third-largest trade surplus with the US of any country after China and Mexico, and was targeted with one of the highest rates in Trump’s tariff blitz.
But in July, Hanoi secured a minimum 20 percent tariff with Washington, down from more than 40 percent, in return for opening its market to US products including cars.
Trump signed off on a global 10-percent tariff on Friday on all countries hours after the Supreme Court ruled many of his levies on imports were illegal.
The two leaders met in person for the first time at the White House on Friday, after Lam attended the inaugural meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Washington.
“Donald Trump said he would instruct the relevant agencies to soon remove Vietnam from the strategic export control list,” Hanoi’s Government News website said.
The two countries were locked in protracted trade negotiations when the US Supreme Court ruled many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs were illegal.
Three Vietnamese airlines announced nearly $37 billion in purchases this week, in a series of contracts signed with US aerospace companies.
Fledgling airline Sun PhuQuoc Airways placed an order for 40 of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, a long-haul aircraft, with an estimated total value of $22.5 billion, while national carrier Vietnam Airlines placed an $8.1 billion order for around 50 Boeing 737-8 aircraft.
When Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, Vietnam had the third-largest trade surplus with the US of any country after China and Mexico, and was targeted with one of the highest rates in Trump’s tariff blitz.
But in July, Hanoi secured a minimum 20 percent tariff with Washington, down from more than 40 percent, in return for opening its market to US products including cars.
Trump signed off on a global 10-percent tariff on Friday on all countries hours after the Supreme Court ruled many of his levies on imports were illegal.
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