Society

Two people were killed and seven others injured in a gas blast at a hospital construction site in downtown Lanzhou, the capital city of Northwest China's Gansu province Tuesday afternoon, said local firemen.

A mixture of liquefied petroleum gas and oxygen leaked from tanks and was ignited by sparks thrown up from the cutting of steel bars at the site where workers were demolishing the outpatient service building of the No 2 Hospital affiliated to Lanzhou University at 4:20 pm, said Zhang Wei, a fireman at the scene.

Roughly 20 tanks remain intact at the site, with firemen spraying water on them, said Zhang.

The explosion caused damages to the nearby first aid center building of the hospital.

Police are investigating the incident.

China is expected to see faster declines in vegetable prices with rising temperatures and increasing vegetable supplies, said Yao Jian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, on Tuesday.

Prices of vegetables and eggs began dropping in mid-February this year while pork and cooking oil posted price decreases at the beginning of April following government measures to stabilize prices and seasonal factors, Yao said at a news conference.

Data from the ministry showed that wholesale prices of 18 staple vegetables in 36 large- and medium-sized cities fell 9.8 percent in the week ending April 17 from the previous week. The decline rate was 5.2 percentage points higher than that of the previous week.

China's consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, jumped by a 32-month high of 5.4 percent from the previous year in March. Food prices, which account for a third of the basket of goods in China's CPI calculation, surged 11 percent year-on-year in March.

Prosecuting authorities in Northwest China's Gansu province on Saturday approved the arrest of two policemen who were accused for the death of a suspect during interrogation, Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. Police authorities admitted the use of torture.

Police in Xihe county, Longnan city of Gansu province, seized four suspects on April 1, of whom two turned themselves in, after a 16-year-old girl was raped and murdered on March 27.

One of the suspects, He Yong, died at the police station during interrogation on the evening of April 1. According to police, He died from a heart attack, but He's uncle, who attended the postmortem examination the next day, said the body was "all black and blue" and "too horrible to look at."

China is striving to increase the average Chinese wages by 15 percent annually in a bid to achieve a two-fold increase in pay by the end of 2015, the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security (MHRSS) said according to a report in the Beijing Times Tuesday.

Yang Zhiming, vice-minister of human resources and social security, speaking during a national labor relation conference Monday, said 13 provinces have raised their minimum wage by an average of 22.8 percent, with more cities likely to see a pay raise within the year.

Addressing the widening income gap between the wealthy and the poor, Yang said the income of officials should be transparent and payment regulations should be re-examined for people with a high income.