Officials analyze cause of soaring toll in gas field blowout

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 26, 2003

Officials analyze cause of soaring toll in gas field blowout

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Time of occurrence and high concentration of toxic gas should be blamed for the casualties soaring rapidly to 191 in three days from the original eight in a gas field blowout in the outskirts of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, officials said Friday.

"Poor transport and communications facilities hampered the timely evacuation of all people from nearby areas when the accident occurred at Tuesday midnight," said Wu Jianong, Vice Mayor of Chongqing.

The tragedy took place at 10:00 p.m. Tuesday and killed at least 191 people, when a natural gas well erupted suddenly and released a high concentration of natural gas and sulfurated hydrogen at Chuandongbei gas field in the mountainous Kaixian County, some 337 kilometers northeast of Chongqing.

Toxic gas quickly spread to nearby areas and caused mass casualty, Wu said.

"Only after we reduced the gas density by inflaming the toxic sulfurated hydrogen Wednesday afternoon could we organize rescue workers to enter the scene," he said.

Twenty special rescue teams entered those hardest-hit villages early Thursday morning to search for survivors and identify casualties.

A total of 65 people were found poisoned and rescued, eight of them dead during the rescue efforts in first day, Wu said.

One infant died on way to hospital at the wee hours Thursday and more bodies were found when rescue teams entered Xiaoyang and Gaowang, two hardest-hit villages.

The rescue teams returned temporarily Thursday afternoon after finding 183 bodies and rescuing 159 survivors in 28 villages, the official said.

More than 41,000 people have been evacuated from areas within aradius of five km in the mountainous area around the gas field.

Some 290 people, mostly children, were hospitalized and four ofthem were still in critical condition while some 3,000 local people were reported to have sulfurated hydrogen-caused symptoms like slight conjunctivitis and colds, according to local health bureau.

Rescue workers and technicians were preparing to contain the bursting gas well Friday morning to prevent further casualties, according to earlier reports.

Rescue workers in red uniform, dozens of fire trucks and emergency equipment have already stood by beginning 7:00 a.m. Friday.

Authorities and technicians planned to carry out the blowout-containing program at about 10:00 a.m. Friday after the China National Petroleum Corporation (C NPC), which operates the gas field, had worked out a detailed program.

The gas field with a storage capacity of 50 to 60 billion tons of natural gas blew out suddenly and released a high concentrationof natural gas and sulfurated hydrogen about 30 meters high, whichquickly spread to nearby villages Tuesday night.

Earlier reports said operations were going normally before the accident and gas suddenly exploded from the side of the drill whenit went through the well 208 meters from the drill site.

The exact cause of the accident is still under investigation.

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