Around 9,185 people were reportedly treated for gas poisoning and other injuries, and 431 were still hospitalised as of 27 December, 17 of them in critical condition.
This death toll is high even by the appalling standards of China's accident-plagued mining industry, where mine explosions, floods, landslides and other disasters kill scores of people at a time. In China it is estimated that an average of some 18 mine workers die each day.
Residents within a three-mile radius of Gaoqiao were evacuated, while rescuers and technicians attempted to stop the deadly release of natural gas and hydrogen sulphide from the gas field. Technicians ignited the gas streaming out on 24 December to try to burn off the toxic fumes. They were also planning to plug the well with cement and earth-moving equipment.
Hardest-hit from the fumes, which spread out into the air for miles around was the village of Xiaoyang, adjacent to the gas field. In one report from the village, a journalist wrote that he had seen at least six bodies lying beside homes and in nearby fields. The bodies of a 12-year-old boy and his mother were found on a road and dead livestock were strewn around the village. According to reports, poor transport and communication has been hampering the evacuation of residents and the timely treatment of those injured. The injured were made up of miners, local farmers and local residents. numbers" of patients. Two of those killed were gas field employees.
Despite the high death toll, some early reports by Xinhua only reported that some eight people had been killed in the accident and that the blow-out was under control. According to one foreign media report, on 25 December, staff at the editor-in-chief's office of one of Chongqing's major newspapers, the Chongqing Evening News, said he had received no new information since the earlier report of eight deaths. The man, who wouldn't give his name, reportedly expressed surprise when told of the reported higher death toll, saying, "Is that possible?". Another report stated that Chinese state television reported the gas field disaster on 25 December, as the second item on its national evening newscast, but gave no death toll.
Despite ongoing attempts to reduce the carnage in Chinas mining industry the number of fatalities in the first nine months has been given by some official reports as 11,449, a rise of nine percent from last year.
It is believed that the gas well burst when a drilling accident broke it open. The Sichuan Petroleum Administration, part of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), reportedly runs the gas field. Kaixian county, where Gaoqiao is located, has some 15 natural gas wells, according to the Shanghai Morning Post, with a population of 1.4 million people.
For more details of CLB's interviews and analysis of other man-made calamities in Chinas mining accidents please see our latest reports:
The absence of rigor and the failure of implementation: Occupational Health and Safety in China
Continuing Carnage in Chinas coal mines: Official responses and recommendations
27 December 2003