Two people were killed and four others injured when a lorry carrying ammonium nitrate exploded in a massive fireball after a road crash.
A motorist filming the blaze through their windscreen – apparently believing they were at a safe distance – captured the moment the HGV erupted in a huge explosion.
The resulting fireball and shockwave swept across the road, smashing the vehicle’s windscreen.
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Other footage filmed from afar shows a towering mushroom cloud rising high into the sky, visible for miles around.
Aftermath videos reveal a huge crater gouged into the debris-strewn road following the explosion, which happened at 11.27am on Saturday (5 July).
The horror unfolded on National Highway 331 in Mandah Bulag Town, East Ujimqin Banner, Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia, China.
Two lorries collided and caught fire, with the initial crash killing two people and injuring another.
As traffic backed up while motorists waited for the road to reopen, the intense heat ignited a load of ammonium nitrate on one of the lorries, triggering the devastating blast.
Several nearby vehicles were badly damaged and the number of injured rose to four, as reported by Need To Know.
Local authorities said all four casualties were taken to hospital for treatment.
Ammonium nitrate is a highly hazardous chemical widely used in fertiliser production and a range of industrial processes.
It has been involved in several catastrophic explosions in recent history.
In August 2015, improperly stored hazardous chemicals, including ammonium nitrate and nitrocellulose, exploded at a warehouse in the Chinese port city of Tianjin.
The twin blasts killed 173 people – many of them firefighters and police officers – injured nearly 800 others and generated shockwaves that were felt up to 20km (12 miles) away.
Five years later, an estimated 2,750 tonnes of improperly stored ammonium nitrate exploded at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon in one of the world’s deadliest industrial disasters.
The blast killed 191 people and devastated much of the city’s main commercial port.
Police are investigating the cause of the crash.
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