Leaking petrol tanks at a local gas station sparked a series of explosions in the downtown sewer system of Chuzhou, a major city in eastern Anhui Province.
Firefighters have since hauled off the petrol tanks, and local officials are beginning their investigation into how the tanks began leaking.
No deaths or injuries were reported.
Downtown Chuzhou was packed with the usual jostling crowds when suddenly a thundering blast rang out at the intersection of Fenghuangxi and Fengle roads. Before most people could recover from the shocks, fires sprang up along the thousand-metre-long street.
In the blast pathway was the Jinda Gas Station, which had 35 tons of petrol and diesel oil in storage. Fear of bigger, deadly explosions there prompted local government officials to evacuate residents from the neighborhood at 7 pm.
The chain of explosions lasted until midnight, and the fires were not extinguished until 4 am.
At first, underground gas pipes were suspected as the source of the explosion. But experts flying in from Hefei, the capital of the province, later concluded that petrol leaking from the Jinda Gas Station was to blame.
(China Daily November 2, 2001)
