Taiwan gas pipeline blasts kill 15, injure 230

Taipei - Gas leaks triggered a series of powerful explosions in the
southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, killing at least 15 people and
injuring more than 230, officials said warning that the death toll was
expected to rise.
The explosions sparked a massive inferno that ripped through the
city's Cianjhen district, with eyewitnesses reporting dead bodies
littered on the streets.
"The gas explosions on Thursday night killed 15 people and injured 233
others," Kaohsiung's mayor Chen Chu told reporters.
The explosions, believed to have been triggered by gas leaks, were
powerful enough to leave the area battered, smashing cars and ripping
open paved roads.
The blasts felt like an "earthquake", the FTV cable news channel
quoted one eyewitness as saying.
Residents were seen carrying the injured on makeshift stretchers as
ambulances rushed to the scene and firefighters in yellow overalls
began removing bodies from the area.
The National Fire Agency said the dead included four firefighters and
put the number of injured at around 240, adding that they were being
rushed to various hospitals in the city.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah earlier told reporters that at least five people,
including a firefighter, were feared dead in the explosions.
The authorities received calls from residents in Kaohsiung's Cianjhen
district about suspected gas leaks late on Thursday, which triggered
multiple explosions.
"The local fire department received calls of gas leaks late Thursday
and then there were a series of blasts around midnight affecting an
area of two to three square kilometres," the fire agency said in a
statement.
Local media reported that emergency rooms in Kaohsiung city hospitals
were packed with casualties and officials warned that the death toll
was expected to rise.
Officials urged people to stay out of the affected areas and local
schools were reopened for people to take shelter.
Thursday's inferno comes just a week after a TransAsia Airways plane
crash in Taiwan left 48 people dead.
In 1996 a gas explosion in Taipei county wounded 12 people and
damaged more than 100 houses.