SHANGHAI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A lab assistant was seriously burned when a hydric gas bottle suddenly caught fire and exploded in a lab class at a Shanghai college on Monday morning, fire officials said.

    The fire occurred at about 8 a.m. when the male assistant was preparing for class experiments in a ground floor chemical lab at Shanghai Institute of Technology.

    The assistant was hospitalized with head, face, chest and back burns, but hospital staff said that his life was not in danger.

    The fire was quickly extinguished. No students were reported injured.

    The incident remains under investigation.