An explosion at a fireworks factory in central Thailand killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, the government's disaster relief agency said. People were also injured in the incident, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said, but but it did not say how many, CBS News reported.
Officials were working to secure the site in Suphan Buri province and help people who were impacted, the department said. The cause of explosion was being investigated.
Suphan Buri is about 60 miles northwest of Bangkok, in the heart of Thailand's central rice-growing region.
The office of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who is in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, distributed a video showing him being told over the phone by the regional police commander that there were 20 to 30 workers at the factory at the time of the explosion and that none of them could be found.
Kritsada Manee-In, a rescue worker with the Samerkun Suphan Buri Rescue Foundation, who earlier estimated that around 15 to 17 people had been killed, said an exact count was difficult because the bodies were in pieces.
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