Nineteen people were killed and 12 others injured after an explosion and fire rocked a chemical factory in an industrial park in Jiang'an county, Yibin City, located just several hours of  southeast of Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The resulting fire from the blast, which occurred at 6:30 pm on Thursday, was extinguished by 11:30 pm. The injured were taken to hospital and are in a stable condition, according to a local government statement.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation, according to the statement.

Photos on local media showed what appeared to be the burned-out shell of a building surrounded by rubble.

A trio of three-story buildings was reduced to their steel frames by the explosion, the Sichuan Daily newspaper said citing eyewitness accounts. 

Windows of nearby buildings were shattered by the explosion at the factory, which is surrounded by a sand and gravel plant, it added.

The company responsible for the factory, Yibin Hengda Technology, was registered in June 2015 and mainly produces chemical products.