Following a gas leak, more than 3,500 people were evacuated from a remote town in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Sunday night, but no casualties have been reported, said the local government on Monday.

 

 

The leak occurred at 8:00 PM at an abandoned well in Tongqiao Town of Shuangqiao District on the city's outskirts, said a spokesman for the Shuangqiao district government. He said the local government immediately evacuated all residents within a one kilometer radius.

 

An emergency task force was set up on Sunday night. Led by experts from China National Petroleum Corporation, the team expects to cap the well on Tuesday morning.

 

The district government has relocated more than 800 people to 11 schools and hotels. They've been provided with bedding, food, drinking water and medicines. Others are staying with relatives.

 

Experts with the task force are monitoring the air, water and environment at the site of the incident. They said a build-up of sulfurated hydrogen had dissipated and was no longer a fire risk.

 

A preliminary investigation showed the well was drilled by a local tourism company in March 2005 who intended to build a spa. The company stopped the project three months later when no hot springs were found.

 

Experts say the well hadn't been properly sealed and pressure caused the gas to leak.

 

The gas has been confirmed as a mixture of sulfurated hydrogen and methane. The municipal environment monitoring station detected sulfurated hydrogen in the air around the well on Monday morning.

 

The Chongqing municipal government has instructed the local environment watchdog to tighten monitoring of air and water quality in the area.

 

A gas leak in Chongqing's Kaixian County three years ago killed 198 people and hospitalized more than 9,000.

 

Last month another gas leak in Xuanhan County, about 500 kilometers northeast of Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu, lasted six days and 12,000 people were evacuated. .

 

 

 

 

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2007)