Toll in China blast up to 69

BEIJING, China -- The number of dead has risen to 69 from a blast in northwestern China caused by illegally stored explosives, according to state television.

China Central Television (CCTV) said 22 more bodies had been found in the village of Mafang in Shaanxi province, where the official Xinhua news agency said 47 people were killed in the blast early on Monday morning.

Villagers believe the death toll to be higher than reported by Xinhua. One estimated that as many as 150 had died, but CCTV said 69 was the final toll.

The TV report said 85 were injured.

Villagers told Reuters earlier this week the blast razed at least 30 cave houses cut out of hillsides while the village slept early on Monday.

On Wednesday, Xinhua reported that Ma Shigui, the villager who had made the explosives and hid them in his younger brother's cave in April to avoid a crackdown on illegal explosives, had turned himself in to local police.

Crane collapsed

Mafang is 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the provincial capital of Xi'an, home of the famed Terracotta Warriors, and caves are popular because they are cool in the fierce summer and easy to heat in winter.

A day after the Mafang blast a giant, brand-new gantry crane collapsed in a Shanghai shipyard, killing 36 people, the latest of a grim series of industrial accidents in China.

China cracked down on unlicensed makers of explosives after a dormitory bombing in the northern industrial city of Shijiazhuang killed more than 100 people in March and highlighted how easy it was to buy explosives.

China executed the man accused of setting off the explosives, as well as two people from a nearby village who had sold him explosives and fuses.

Also in March, an explosion in an elementary school killed 43 people, most of them children, in the eastern province of Jiangxi where fireworks are a cottage industry.

Authorities blamed the blast on a deranged bomber and denied allegations by local people that the children were making fireworks when the explosion took place.

Another blast blamed on illegally stored explosives killed three people and injured eight in the southern province of Hainan on July 7.

Reuters contributed to this report.