Five people were killed and six others reported missing after an explosion rocked one of the largest chemical plants in China on Tuesday, generating a huge fireball and sending plumes of smoke hundreds of feet into the air.

The explosion took place at the state-owned Shandong Youdao Chemical, the world's largest producer of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, located in Shandong province, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Five people were killed and six others missing after the blast, it said.

The plant, established in 2019 in Gaomi city, produces around 11,000 tonnes of pesticide a year and has a workforce of over 300 people, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

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