Chinese Gas Leak Prompts Mass Evac

About 7,000 people have been evacuated from their homes after a leak was discovered at a gas well in a southwest Chinese town where 243 people were killed in an earlier gas leak, an official said Sunday. No injuries were reported.

Workers at the gas field in Kaixian County near the city of Chongqing ignited gas at the mouth of the well Saturday to avoid the possibility of a buildup and an explosion, said a county official who would give only his surname, Xia.

Those people who were evacuated lived within 0.6 miles of the well, he said.

"There's no danger now," Xia said in a telephone interview.

He said workers were hoping to shut down the well Sunday and allow residents to return home.

The incident occurred in the same mountain town of Gaoqiao in Kaixian County where 243 people were killed in another gas leak in December 2003 - one of the country's worst industrial accidents.

That leak spewed a deadly cloud of natural gas and hydrogen sulfide over a 10 square mile area. Many residents died in their sleep or collapsed while trying to flee, leaving the area strewn with bodies.

About 9,000 people were hurt and more than 41,000 villagers were forced from their homes around the Chuandongbei Gas Field northeast of Chongqing. Many survivors suffered lung damage and burns on their eyes and skin.

Six employees of the Chuandong (East Sichuan) Drilling Co. were sentenced to prison in 2004 for negligence.

The same company was operating the 11,100-foot deep well in the latest incident, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The leak was discovered during "final tests which were being conducted to bring the just-finished well into production," Xinhua said. It did not give any more details.

A man who answered the telephone at Chuandong said he wasn't clear on how or where the leak had occurred. He said many workers were trying to shut down the well. He refused to give his name.

Another official from Kaixian County said residents have also been warned against drinking from a section of a nearby river, which started "rolling and foaming" Saturday morning.

The official, who gave only his surname, Tan, said the water appeared to contain methane, possibly one of the gases in the well. The water was being monitored, Tan said.

He said a 650-foot area around the river had been cordoned off.
By Audra Ang