The last group of the more than 12,000 people who were evacuated from their village in southwestern Sichuan Province, has returned home after a ruptured gas well was successfully capped on Wednesday.

The Qingxi No. 1 Gas Well began leaking on Dec. 21, at Qingxi Town of Xuanhan county forcing 12,380 nearby residents to leave their homes. To prevent poisoning the gas was ignited shooting out huge flames that lit up the night skies for weeks.

The last group of 994 villagers, who live within a 500 meter radius of the well, began to return home on Thursday morning. Many had been living in hotels in the town of Qingxi about two kilometers from the well, said Li Ke, the head of Sanhe Township.

Some of the villagers who lived further away from the well were allowed to return home on Dec. 24.

Zhang Darong, a Sanhe villager, was relieved to be back in his home on Thursday morning. He had been living with relatives.

"Nothing is better than being in my own home. Everything in the house is intact" said the 46-year-old, adding that he had received 10 yuan (US$1.28) from the government to cover the cost of transportation. It's expected the villagers will receive further compensation but there are no reports on how much that might be.

After two failed attempts the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), which owns the well, successfully capped the gas well in the mountainous county on Wednesday.

The well was capped using 1,100 cubic meters of mud and 400 cubic meters of cement. Fires around the well have all been extinguished, according to Chen Tonghai, general manager of Sinopec.

Local officials report no casualties from the gas leak.

Two attempts to cap the well on Dec. 24 and Dec.27 failed.

Xuanhan County, about 500 kilometers to the northeast of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, is on of China's major sources of natural gas.

The Qingxi No. 1 Gas Well is a test well being drilled by Sinopec Southern Prospecting and Development Branch and is designed to reach a depth of 5,620 meters.

(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2007)