An explosion occurred at a cement factory near Tokyo on Monday night, causing a car to burn in a parking lot about 50 meters away, but no one was injured in the incident, authorities said.

Local police and Taiheiyo Cement Corp. officials said an off-grid power system on the premises of the factory in Hidaka, Saitama Prefecture, is likely to have exploded at the time when 14 people were working in the plant.

The explosion damaged windows of about 20 vehicles in the parking lot, according to the police, while firefighters said the blaze spread to a forest near the factory but was quickly put out.

A local fire department received an emergency call at around 10 p.m. Monday reporting the sound of a blast and a passenger car on fire.

Residents around the factory heard a large explosion, with a 38-year-old woman who lives about 2 kilometers from the factory saying there was a loud noise and shaking.

"My daughter was on her way home from a cram school and was surprised to see something that looked like snowflakes falling," the woman added.

A 25-year-old resident of neighboring Sakado told Kyodo News he saw black smoke rising from the factory when he was in the adjacent parking lot of a pachinko parlor.

The man said he was able to return home in his ash-covered car, but there were other vehicles with broken windshields.

==Kyodo

© Kyodo News International, Inc., source Newswire