At least 40 killed in China construction accident

At least 40 people have been killed when a platform collapsed at a construction site in China's Jiangxi province, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The accident took place at a power plant in Fengcheng, where a cooling tower was under construction, at around 7:00am local time (12:00am CET) and rescuers were on the scene, Xinhua said.

The death toll was likely to rise because an unknown number of people were still trapped, it said. The BBC reported that a total of 68 people were at the construction site at the time of the accident.

Five injured workers have reportedly been sent to hospital.

According to Jiangxi Daily, two 168m-high cooling towers were being built at the site as part of a project to add two 1,000-megawatt coal-fired power units to the power plant.

Deadly accidents are relatively common at industrial sites in China, and anger over lax standards is growing. Three decades of swift economic growth have been marred by incidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires.

China has vowed to improve safety at such facilities. President Xi Jinping has said authorities would learn the lessons paid for with blood after chemical blasts in the port city of Tianjin killed more than 170 people last year.