At least 67 killed in construction accident at Chinese power plant

At least 67 people were killed Thursday when a platform that was under construction at the cooling tower of a power plant in eastern China collapsed, state media reported.

The incident happened at the Fengcheng plant in Jiangxi province at around 7 a.m. local time, the official news agency Xinhua said.

State TV reported that rescuers were trying to free one person who was trapped.

Five injured workers were taken to a local hospital, Xinhua reported. State broadcaster CCTV reported that more than 100 paramilitary police joined in the rescue effort.

Premier Li Keqiang said supervision and preventive measures should be improved to stop such a major accident from happening again.

Work on the $1.1 billion coal-powered plant is due to be completed in 2018, according to media reports.

Accidents are common at industrial sites in China. Anger is growing over lax standards, according to Reuters. In August last year, huge explosions and a fire at a chemical warehouse in the northeastern city of Tianjin killed more than 170 people and injured about 800.

Almost 50 government officials and company employees and managers were jailed over those blasts.