Explosion rocks chemistry school in eastern France

NANCY, France — A large explosion rocked a university’s chemistry department in eastern France on Friday, killing a professor who was blown through the ceiling, authorities said.

The explosion on the ground floor of the Superior National School of Chemistry in Mulhouse, part of the University of Haute Alsace, was apparently a lab accident. It blew out windows and spewed debris dozens of yards onto a lawn outside. Witnesses said they saw plumes of black smoke rising from the building.

The 40-year-old professor was propelled through the ceiling of the laboratory, which researches high-risk chemical procedures, and found dead on the floor above, according to Mulhouse City Hall.

A female student was hospitalized in intensive care; 10 other people injured by broken glass were also being treated, state officials in the Haut-Rhin region said.

Mulhouse City Hall referred to the explosion as an accident.

Officials at the school in Mulhouse, near the border with Germany, said the blast took place at lunchtime, and many people had left the building. Everyone was accounted for.

Firefighters battled the blaze that followed the blast. Specialists were deployed to contain any harmful chemicals.

"We thought it was an earthquake,” a local resident identified as Jean-Pierre Langer told TF1 television. "It really shook.”

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