It was a birthday celebration that came with a massive bang – one that they will never forget.

Lighting up candles on the cake, singing the birthday song and helping themselves to food, drinks and free balloons weren’t enough for a group of raucous party-goers in China on Sunday (Dec 4).

When eight of them packed into an elevator with reportedly 200 balloons to take home, one of them wanted the party fun to continue after their celebration ended at a hotel restaurant.

Throwing caution to the wind and probably goaded by the urging of a few people, a youth reportedly flicked his lighter and ignited a loud explosion when he lit one of the hydrogen-filled balloons, reported Sina News. This caused the rest to burst too in a split second.

Fortunately the blowout at the hotel in Lu’an city in Anhui province did not cause any serious harm. Although the group suffered minor burns as they were scorched by the fiery flash, they were positively shocked by the blast.

It was so impactful it caused the lift to stall in between the first and second floors, trapping all of them inside as the door could not be opened.

Sina News reported there were screams and cries from the group but all were rescued when firefighters arrived.

Pictures on Weibo micro-blogging website show the visibly shaken celebrants.

Netizens criticised the reckless behaviour of the group. They also wondered why helium wasn’t used to fill the balloons as it is non-combustible. In response, some pointed out that hydrogen gas was a cheaper alternative.

One netizen named ‘Some Guy’ commented: “Lucky for them they weren’t taking boxes of fireworks back to their rooms.”

chenj@sph.com.sg

PIDIE JAYA, Indonesia – Indonesian President Joko Widodo pledged Friday to help the people of Aceh rebuild as he toured areas worst-hit by a devastating earthquake that killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless.

The shallow 6.5-magnitude quake Wednesday levelled hundreds of homes, mosques and businesses across Aceh province, one of the areas worst affected by the destructive 2004 tsunami.

Rescue crews have been searching the rubble with sniffer dogs while excavators clear the debris-strewn streets two days after the disaster.

Humanitarian assistance is reaching the hardest-hit district of Pidie Jaya, where many spent a second night sleeping in shelters and overcrowded field hospitals.

Pope Francis offered his prayers to the victims overnight, urging them strength in their toughest hour.

The earthquake struck at dawn as many in the predominantly Muslim region were preparing for prayers.

“We will rebuild this mosque as soon as possible,” he told the gathered crowd.

“We’ll work through this together.” Among those who gathered to hear Widodo speak was Rahmawati, who lost her husband and two children in the quake.

“I am happy the president is willing to see those of us who are grieving,” she told AFP.

Aceh lies on the northern tip of Sumatra island, which is particularly prone to quakes.

A huge undersea earthquake in 2004 triggered a tsunami that engulfed several countries around the Indian Ocean, killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia alone, the vast majority in Aceh.

Many parts of Indonesia experience frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.

BANGKOK – A criminal negligence trial against ousted former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand’s first female premier, will end in July 2017, with a verdict expected soon after, her lawyer said on Friday.

Yingluck is accused of negligence over a rice-buying scheme that helped sweep her to power in a 2011 general election.

The scheme was aimed at boosting rural incomes and was popular with rural voters, but the finance ministry estimated it caused a loss of 536 billion baht ($15 billion). “We think that the court will hand down a verdict in this rice case next year after cross-examining the last witness in the middle of July,” lawyer Sommai Koosap told Reuters.

The trial against Yingluck began in 2015.

She denies any wrongdoing but faces up to 10 years in prison if she is found guilty. “I will fight this until the end,” Yingluck told reporters on Friday.

Opposition to the rice-buying scheme helped embolden Yingluck’s opponents among royalist Bangkok elites and others in a movement that ultimately led to her downfall.

Thailand was once the world’s top rice exporter but lost its crown to India after the collapse of the scheme, which ensured that farmers were cushioned by subsidies and that the state bought rice from farmers at sometimes double the market rate.

The end of the scheme left Thailand with mountains of rice that the current military government is trying to offload.

Thailand has about 8 million tonnes of rice left over from the scheme that it needs to get rid of, the commerce ministry said this month.

The military has said it would wean farmers off farm subsidies since taking power following a May 2014 coup that toppled Yingluck.

However it has had to contend with disgruntled rice farmers struggling with low prices and has back-pedalled somewhat on that pledge with a series of rescue packages in recent weeks.

Yingluck was retroactively impeached after the 2014 coup by the junta’s legislature, which banned her from politics for five years for failing to stop the rice programme.

Her supporters say the move was aimed at curbing her political influence.

Yingluck has toured Thailand this year as part of a series of appearances with her supporters that some analysts see as a bid to ensure the survival of her political legacy.

TOKYO – The estimated cost of dealing with the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis has doubled to nearly $190 billion, the government said Friday, underlining the challenge Japan faces in overcoming the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Tokyo said it expects the total costs – including compensation, decommissioning and decontamination – to reach 21.5 trillion yen ($188 billion).

The figure is nearly double the previous estimate of 11 trillion yen made three years ago.

Tokyo’s confirmation of the surging costs linked to the accident comes after public broadcaster NHK reported similar figures last week.

The estimates were hammered out by an expert panel that is working out how costs should be divided between the government, Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) and others.

A massive undersea quake on March 11, 2011, sent a giant tsunami barrelling into Japan’s northeastern coast, leaving more than 18,500 people dead or missing, and sending three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

It was Japan’s worst postwar disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

TEPCO faces a massive task of clearing highly radioactive spent fuel rods from its badly damaged reactors, and the entire decommissioning process is expected to take up to four decades.

It also has to pay compensation to residents, while the government will incur part of the costs for decontamination and building storage for contaminated debris.

HANOI – Vietnam has started dredging work on a reef in the South China Sea, fresh satellite images appear to show, a move that could provoke Beijing which claims most of the disputed waterway.

An image of the small Ladd Reef in the Spratly Islands, where Vietnam has a lighthouse, shows several vessels in a carved out embankment on the reef’s edge.

Sediment can be seen leaking out into the ocean, according to the November 30 image provided to AFP on Friday by US-based Planet Labs, a satellite imaging company.

A July picture from Planet Labs shows no breach to the reef’s embankment, suggesting the work began in recent months.

Vietnamese officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The images follow photos published last month from US-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative that showed Vietnam had extended a runway and was building hangars capable of hosting military equipment on a different island in the Spratlys also claimed by Beijing.

But Vietnam’s latest moves remain small-scale compared to China’s build-up in the waterway, where it has constructed several islands capable of supporting military facilities.

Though the intent of the work depicted in the photos cannot be confirmed, Vietnam expert Carl Thayer told AFP that Hanoi might be trying to “stock up” ahead of a code of conduct agreement between various claimants in the South China Sea expected next year.

“Vietnam is moving beyond the status quo,” said Thayer, a professor at the University of New South Wales.

“My speculation was that if we are moving toward some diplomatic end game at some point in the next year or two, then Vietnam looks like it’s trying to get as much as it can before it’s prohibited,” he added.

Thayer said China can “make a meal out of” Vietnam’s latest apparent dredging work, but said it does not appear to be for military purposes or explicitly threaten Beijing.

The two countries have long traded barbs over disputed territory in the sea. In 2014 China moved a controversial oil rig into contested waters, prompting riots in Vietnam.

Tensions have eased slightly in recent months but the issue remains incendiary on both sides.

The sea is also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan and is rich in energy reserves, fishery resources and is a busy shipping route.