The Hindu : International : Gas leak behind blast?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004

International

International

Gas leak behind blast?

Mulhouse (France): At least 14 persons were killed in an explosion in an apartment block in Mulhouse, eastern France, that was believed to have been caused by a gas leak, fire services said on Monday. The blast on Sunday, which brought down part of the four-storey building and left several persons missing, was one of the deadliest in France in the past three decades. One hundred firemen with sniffer dogs combed the ruins overnight and pulled out eight bodies. ``It is very unlikely survivors will be found given the scale of the damage, but we can always hope and believe there might be because in this sort of accident there is always a survival zone,'' one fire officer said. Some 30 persons were believed to have been living in the blocks 10 apartments, which housed poor families paying rent subsidised by the state. The city's Mayor, Jean-Mrie Bockel, said it appeared the explosion resulted from a gas leak on the ground floor or first floor of the building, which was built in 1964 and had been recently renovated.

— AFP

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