Reports from China say an explosion at an unregistered fireworks factory has killed eleven children and several adults.

Chinese press reports say the blast caused the collapse of the two-storey workshop in Anhui province in the east.

A four-year-old child was among the dead.

Some reports said at least twenty-two people had been killed.

Correspondents say such explosions are common in the run-up to the Chinese new year, which this year falls on February the Sixteenth.