Gas Explosion

A gas explosion tore through a coal mine in China's central Shanxi province and trapped at least 187 workers, the government said. The official New China News Agency said about 80 miners were rescued. It did not define how many people were in the Chenjiashan mine when the explosion occurred. Last month, a massive explosion in the Daping mine in central Henan province left 148 people dead.

A methane gas explosion in a coal mine air shaft in Cameron killed three workers and injured three others who were rescued from 900 feet below the surface. Two sheriff's deputies retrieved the survivors from the Consol Energy Co. mine after emergency workers said they were not trained for the rescue. The dead miners were identified as David Abel, 47, and Richard Mount, 37, both from Ohio; and Harry Roush III, 23, from Pennsylvania.

A gas explosion tore through a five-story apartment building in eastern France, killing 17 people and injuring 15, authorities said. Most of the deaths occurred when three floors above the explosion site collapsed, officials said. Rescue workers equipped with search dogs and mechanical diggers scoured the wreckage in a hunt for several people who remained missing, said Capt. Bertrand Weckel of regional emergency services.

A methane gas explosion deep in a coal mine in western Romania killed at least 14 miners and injured two others in the country's worst mining accident in more than a decade. Paulian Furtuna, a mine company spokesman, said the cause of the explosion was not immediately known. The blast occurred in a mine near Vulcan, about 150 miles northwest of the capital, Bucharest.

A third person badly burned last week in a gas explosion near Brenham, Tex., has died, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday. Delores Medve, 27, died Sunday. She was in a car that passed through a cloud of volatile fumes near a leaking storage facility. Investigators said the car may have touched off the blast last Tuesday.

A Lakewood woman and her two children, severely burned in a gas explosion this week, underwent reconstructive surgery Friday for extensive third-degree burns and remained hospitalized in critical condition. Debra J. Bell, 34, and her two children, Kizzie, 5, and Charles, 4, each underwent surgery by teams of doctors at the burn center of Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center. Dr.

The death toll from a gas pipeline explosion in Belgium rose to 16, and officials said it could go higher. The blast Friday destroyed two factories in Ath, 25 miles southwest of Brussels. King Albert II spoke to families of victims and visited the scene as investigators tried to establish the cause. Among the dead were five firefighters who were killed as they were setting up a safety cordon after a leak was reported in the underground pipeline.