Nearly 200 die in China gas blast.
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| Thu, 12-25-2003 - 8:21am |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3347769.stm
At least 190 people have died following an explosion at a gas field in Chongqing, south-western China, the state news agency Xinhua reports.
Initial reports after the blast at the Chuandongbei field on Tuesday said only eight people had died.
But the death toll has risen sharply, perhaps due to later fatalities from poisoning and chemical burns.
The BBC's Francis Markus in China says the accident is one of the most serious to hit China's natural gas industry.
A nearby hospital was overwhelmed as it tried to deal with victims of the blast.
"We are very busy. There are patients everywhere. We haven't counted the casualties," one unnamed hospital worker told the Reuters news agency.
The death toll has been rising steadily through the day, with initial reports of about 130 dead being followed in quick succession by news of 160 killed, then 190.
People have been evacuated for several miles around the site.
Normal operations
Operations were going normally before the gas suddenly exploded from the side of the drill, Qian Zhijia, deputy head of the gas field, told Xinhua.
The cause of the blast is being investigated.
Mr Qian says the situation should be under control by Friday.
China is notorious for its dangerous working conditions.
An average of more than 10,000 people a month died in work-related accidents from January to September of this year.
Cabinet response
Beijing has sent a team led by a cabinet secretary to the scene, Xinhua reported.
It said President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders had called on local authorities to "go all out to rescue victims, prevent poisonous gas from spreading further and reduce casualties".
The natural gas industry is an emblem of modernisation in a country heavily dependent on coal, our correspondent says.
The field belongs to the China National Petroleum Corporation.
Its subsidiary PetroChina began construction of a $400m gas pipeline from Chongqing to central China in August.
cl-Libraone


Rescuers in southwestern China are finding villages full of dead people after a gas well blowout unleashed a toxic cloud, creating a 25-square kilometer "death zone."
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http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/26/china.gas/index.html