Qingdao environment assessed after deadly blasts

QINGDAO - The response to last month's deadly oil-fuelled explosions in Qingdao City of East China's Shandong province continued on Monday, with the start of an assessment of the environmental impact of the incident and the safety of a petrochemical facility.

Meanwhile, authorities have also started revising the functional planning of this facility in Qingdao's Huangdao District, where the blasts occurred. They did not specify what functions are to be revised, according to the rescue headquarters.

Safety evaluation of damaged houses and assessment of the full extent of the damage have also begun, said the headquarters.

Explosions caused by a ruptured oil pipeline on November 22 have taken 55 lives, injured 130 others and left nine people missing.

A section of pipeline linking Huangdao with Dongying City, also in Shandong, has been shut down after it was identified as responsible for the leakage that caused the blasts.

Huangdao is a major Chinese petrochemical base. It is home to one of China's strategic oil reserves and a large refinery plant run by Sinopec, the country's largest oil refinery.