2003 China Gas Field Blast: Police in anti-chemical suits depart for Kaixian County, some 337 kms northeast of Chongqing in southwest China, December 26, 2003. A gas well blow-out in southwest China turned a 25 square km (10 sq miles) area into a death zone, killing nearly 200 people as they slept or scrambled to escape a cloud of toxic fumes, officials and state media said on Friday. Bodies of farmers and livestock were scattered over a wide area after the well burst on Tuesday. 'The poisonous gas hovering in the air made an area of 25 sq km a death zone as many villagers were intoxicated by the fumes in their sleep,' the China Daily newspaper said. |
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