Dozens of local villagers began to go back home Saturday, after authorities and technicians sealed the gas well which blew out Tuesday night in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.

"We are going home today," said a farmer from Sanxi Village, Zhenba Town, more than 10 km from the gas well.

"I want to clean up my house and count my losses, because we can't smell the fumes now," said the farmer, who did not want to be named.

He said all his seven family members were healthy, and they had been away from home for four days.

Only those living far from the villages are allowed to return home currently and villagers within five km from the gas field are still not allowed to go home, according to local rescue headquarters.
 
Meanwhile, 260 armed police have been mobilized to move human corpses to funeral homes. and clear away dead pigs, cows, birds, ducks and other animals left near the gas field.

On Saturday, rescue workers found seven more bodies, raising the gas blowout death toll to 198 in Kaixian County, some 337 km northeast of Chongqing.

More than 9,000 local villagers have been poisoned to different extents, while over 42,000 people have been evacuated since Tuesday, when the tragedy occurred.

Over 100 medical experts began to disinfect eight villages closest to the gas well, and the results of environmental tests of the air and surface water will be available within two days, local officials said.

"Health departments will test and disinfect the drinking water, vegetables and local people," said Zhang Mingkui, director of the Kaixian County Bureau of Environmental Protection.

"The corpses of animals will be cremated," Zhang said. "Then a thorough disinfection and environmental evaluation will be conducted before villagers near the blowout site are allowed to return home."

Meanwhile, the State Council, China's cabinet, Saturday set up a leading investigation team headed by Wang Xianzheng, director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), to further investigate the gas well blowout.

The members of the investigation team include Chongqing Mayor Wang Hongju, Deputy Minister of Supervision Chen Changzhi and other officials from the Commission for Supervision and Management of State-owned Properties.

The group will submit an investigation report to the State Council after being authorized to find out the cause of the accident, casualties and property losses, and those responsible for the accident.

"It was an accident of rare severity," said SAWS spokesman Huang Yi. "We must learn a lesson from it."

The gas blowout was also the worst work safety accident in China in 2003, according to the SAWS.

(Xinhua News Agency, December 28, 2003)