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78 people were injured, 20 houses were burnt in addition to an unknown number of cattle. Up to yesterday evening Sonatrach technical teams were still repairing the pipeline, of a distance of 300 metres was damaged. Mohammadia District in the Wilaya was shaken by the deafening sound of the explosion Thursday morning at a quarter past seven at a distance of 50 metres from the village of Bekhaitia. The explosion affected the main gas pipe of Hassi Rmel fields of the South next to the liquefaction complex, set up in 1975, in Arzew industrial area in the Wilaya of Oran. Fire-fighters services of Mohammadia District were the first to intervene and could only help the disaster victims and take them to hospitals. The blaze, the licks of which reached 20 metres long according to some inhabitants, continued until 11 o’clock when a part of the pipeline was empty. The gas pumping was stopped automatically after the explosion. Additional fire-fighter teams moved from Mascara, Ghelizane, and Mostaganem besides those of Sonatrach of Arzew. Sonatrach officials refused commenting the event and gave no statement on its causes. Security and administrative sources excluded the existence of criminal or terrorist causes. They gave priority to the possibility of a technical breakdown which already caused a similar accident 13 September 2005 near Bouteffaha village in the commune of Elghomri not far from the new accident’s site. The injured were taken to Dahou Dehaoui Hospital in Mohammadia District Thursday morning. They were given health care and most of them left hospital after the visit of the local and military authorities. Meanwhile, some of them are still in Hospital. Others were taken to Oran Hospital and Sonatrach took them in charge. Two of the seriously injured were taken to Montpellier Hospital in France. L. Bourabia/ D. Bensalah | ||||||||||||||||||
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Gas pipeline explosion in Mohammadia, 78 injured and a Village escaped a real catastrophe