A powerful explosion at a petrochemical plant in eastern Hungary on Friday left one person dead and several others injured, according to Hungarian energy company Mol Group, which owns and operates the facility.
The blast occurred at the company’s plant in Tiszaujvaros during the restart of operations following scheduled maintenance work, officials said. The incident triggered a fire and prompted an immediate emergency response from disaster management authorities and medical teams.
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar confirmed the incident in a post on social media, stating that seven people suffered burn injuries in the explosion. He added that emergency personnel were quickly deployed to the site to contain the situation and assist the injured workers.
According to Minister of Economy and Energy Istvan Kapitany, five rescue helicopters were used to transport the injured victims to hospitals in the nearby cities of Miskolc and Debrecen for urgent medical treatment. The condition of the injured workers has not yet been officially disclosed.
Authorities also moved swiftly to assess the environmental impact of the explosion. In a social media update, Kapitany stated that a specialised disaster response mobile laboratory had been dispatched to the area to monitor air quality and possible chemical contamination.
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“The laboratory did not detect concentrations of hazardous materials above the permitted threshold limits,” the minister said, offering reassurance that there was no immediate large-scale environmental danger to nearby residents. Prime Minister Magyar further stated that both Economy Minister Kapitany and Mol Group Chief Executive Officer Zsolt Hernadi were travelling to the site of the explosion to oversee response operations and review the situation first-hand.
“We express our sincere condolences to the family of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” Magyar wrote in his statement posted on Facebook.
Meanwhile, regional disaster management officials confirmed that the fire triggered by the explosion had been successfully extinguished after emergency crews worked to contain the blaze.
David Dojcsak, spokesperson for the regional disaster management authority, told Hungary’s state news agency MTI that cleanup and safety operations were still ongoing at the site. Emergency teams continue to secure the affected area and assess structural damage caused by the blast.
Authorities have not yet announced the exact cause of the explosion, though investigations are expected to focus on technical and operational procedures during the plant’s restart process after maintenance.
The incident has once again raised concerns about industrial safety measures at large petrochemical facilities, particularly during maintenance and restart operations, which are often considered high-risk phases in plant functioning.
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