In photos: Taiwanese city reels after gas-pipeline blasts kill 26, level city streets
Explosions in Kaohsiung kill 26, injure 267 and send 12,000 people fleeing in mass evacuation
Wrecked cars line a street in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, early Friday after a series of gas-pipeline explosions levelled an area of more than two square kilometres, sending cars flying in the air.Reuters
A person is seen lying on the ground after the early-morning explosion. The blasts killed 26 people and injured 267 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second-largest city.Reuters
Smoke and flames rise from an explosion above the streets of Kaohsiung early Friday. The blasts were believed to be caused by leaking propene, the director of the Central Disaster Emergency Operation Center said Friday, but the cause and location of the leaks wasn’t known.TSUN ZHENG HAO/The Associated Press
A view from a rooftop shows the roads after an explosion in Kaohsiung. The exploded gas line belongs to government-owned CPC Corp., which told Associated Press there were no signs of problems before the explosions.CY CHANG/Reuters
A destroyed fire truck is seen overturned in the rubble. The dead included four firefighters, with two others reported missing.WALLY SANTANA/The Associated Press
By Friday afternoon, most of the four exploded street sections had been declared safe from further blasts, a city spokesman told Associated Press.CY CHANG/Reuters
Soldiers survey the wreckage after the explosions in Kaohsiung. The city will do a formal probe on what cause the explosions, city spokesman Ting Yun-kung told Associated Press. “We haven’t started a formal investigation yet, just a partial one,” he said. “A full one will take a few days.”STRINGER/TAIWAN/Reuters