The explosion occurred early morning at a demolished factory in Jiangbei district of Ningbo City in Zhejiang province and also left two persons missing.
It was country's worst industrial explosion in three years which also damaged nearby buildings and vehicles.
The Chinese police today ruled out the possibility of a human error behind it and said further investigation was required into the cause of the blast, state-run People's Daily reported.
China had a number of industrial accidents in the course of its massive economic growth.
Today's explosion resembled a series of explosions in 2015 in Tianjin port city which ripped through a warehouse, leaving 165 people dead, eight missing and 798 injured.
The majority of those killed were firefighting crews who had gone to douse the flames.
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