BEIJING, Nov 22: Panic spread through one of China’s largest cities on Tuesday as residents hoarded water and food ahead of a four-day water stoppage due to fears that a chemical plant explosion had contaminated drinking supplies.

“In order to safeguard water safety in the urban districts, the municipal government has decided to provisionally stop supplying water to the public water network,” the government of Harbin city, the capital of Heilongjiang, said in a statement.

The order follows a November 13 explosion at a petrochemical plant in Jilin city, 380 kilometres from Harbin.

The explosion killed at least five people and resulted in the temporary evacuation of tens of thousands of others who were forced to flee a cloud of toxic smoke.

“At present there is no sign of any abnormalities along the Songhua river in the Harbin section, but the environmental protection agency expects that up-river pollution could appear in the coming days,” the government said.—AFP