Gas blast at Hanjin's Philippine shipyard kills 2

MANILA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - An accidental explosion at a Philippine shipyard run by South Korea's Hanjin Heavy Industries (003480.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) killed two workers and injured three others on Friday, police said.

Five men were working at an assembly workshop in the plant inside Subic Bay, a former U.S. navy base northwest of Manila, when an acetylene tank exploded, sparking a small fire. The fire was later put out.

"We're still investigating what caused the explosion," said Superintendent Cesar Jacob, adding two Filipino workers were killed in the blast. "Three people were also injured but there could be more victims."

Hanjin declined to comment on the incident.

The South Korean group has a $1.68 billion shipyard project in Subic Bay in northern Philippines and was planning to build a second shipyard costing $2 billion on the southern island of Mindanao.

The Subic facility had orders for 28 container vessels, three bulk carriers and two oil tankers as of June last year.

The Mindanao shipyard was due for completion in 2017, with a capacity of 830,000 tonnes per year. (Reporting by Manny Mogato, editing by Carmel Crimmins and Sanjeev Miglani)