At least two people died and up to 200 others were injured in an explosion when a chemical pipeline ignited in eastern China on Wednesday, state media reported.

The blast occurred in the city of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, at about 10 a.m. (0200 GMT), China National Radio said on its website.

It said a pipeline carrying ethylene blew up on the grounds of an abandoned plastics factory, and that one of its reporters had seen two dead bodies.

About 200 people were injured and rushed to local hospitals for treatment, a website run by the provincial government said.

Authorities were still trying to determine the total number of casualties from the blast, which blew out windows in buildings up to 300 metres (yards) away, reports said.

"There are dozens of injured in our hospital. Their situations are not serious, most of them suffered burns," said a doctor at the city's Zhongda hospital, who refused to identify herself.

"Nobody has died in our hospital. There are injured people in every big hospital in Nanjing."

Xinhua said a fire that broke out at the scene following the blast had been put out.