At least 24 people were killed and 271 others injured when several underground gas explosions ripped through Taiwan's second-largest city overnight, hurling concrete through the air and blasting long trenches in the streets, authorities said Friday.
One of the explosions left a large trench running down the center of a road, edged with piles of concrete slabs torn apart by the force of the blast. Several emergency vehicles were tossed upside down. The force of the initial blast also felled
Power was cut off in the area, making it difficult for firefighters to search for others who might be buried in rubble. CNA said the local fire department received reports from residents of gas leakage at about 8:46 p.m. and that explosions started
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu said several petrochemical companies have pipelines built along the sewage system in Chian-Chen district, which has both factories and residential buildings.
He said emergency workers would have to wait until the gas is burnt away. The source of the leak was unknown. Chang said, however, that propene was not for public use, and that it was a petrochemical material.
Chang Jia-juch, the director of the Central Disaster Emergency Operation Center, said the leaking gas was most likely to be propene, meaning that the resulting fires could not be extinguished by water.
Four firefighters were among the 24 dead and 271 people were injured, the National Fire Agency said. The firefighters had been at the scene investigating reports of a gas leak when the explosions occurred, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.
Video from the TVBS broadcaster showed residents searching for victims in shattered storefronts and rescuers pulling injured people from the rubble of a road and placing them on stretchers while passersby helped other victims on a sidewalk.
The fires were believed caused by a leak of propene, a petrochemical material not intended for public use, but the source of the gas was not immediately clear, officials said.