Following a gas leak, more than 3,500 people were evacuated from
a remote town in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Sunday night, but no
casualties have been reported, said the local government on
Monday.
The leak occurred at 8:00 PM at an abandoned well in Tongqiao
Town of Shuangqiao District on the city's outskirts, said a
spokesman for the Shuangqiao district government. He said the local
government immediately evacuated all residents within a one
kilometer radius.
An emergency task force was set up on Sunday night. Led by
experts from China National Petroleum Corporation, the team expects
to cap the well on Tuesday morning.
The district government has relocated more than 800 people to 11
schools and hotels. They've been provided with bedding, food,
drinking water and medicines. Others are staying with
relatives.
Experts with the task force are monitoring the air, water and
environment at the site of the incident. They said a build-up of
sulfurated hydrogen had dissipated and was no longer a fire
risk.
A preliminary investigation showed the well was drilled by a
local tourism company in March 2005 who intended to build a spa.
The company stopped the project three months later when no hot
springs were found.
Experts say the well hadn't been properly sealed and pressure
caused the gas to leak.
The gas has been confirmed as a mixture of sulfurated hydrogen
and methane. The municipal environment monitoring station detected
sulfurated hydrogen in the air around the well on Monday
morning.
The Chongqing municipal government has instructed the local
environment watchdog to tighten monitoring of air and water quality
in the area.
A gas leak in Chongqing's Kaixian County three years ago killed
198 people and hospitalized more than 9,000.
Last month another gas leak in Xuanhan County, about 500
kilometers northeast of Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu,
lasted six days and 12,000 people were evacuated. .
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2007)
