|
6 Dead in Chile explosion
Santiago, Sep 7, 2010 (EFE via COMTEX) --
Six people died when a cargo of
industrial explosives detonated while being transferred from one
truck to another in northern Chile's Antofagasta region, authorities
said Tuesday.
Police said initially that four were killed Monday in a collision
between an explosives-laden truck and another vehicle.
The dead men worked for saltpeter producer Soquimich and were
transporting a cargo of Anfo explosives to a mining company in the
area.
Experts as yet have no explanation for why the explosion
occurred, because - as police Lt. Col. Rodrigo Alegria told
reporters - Anfo if a very stable material that requires a detonator
to explode.
The Anfo was being transported in sacks weighing 25 kilograms (55
pounds), but so far authorities do not know the quantity of the
explosive that the victims had with them.
The men had stopped their trucks by the side of the road
connecting Antofagasta, the regional capital, with the city of
Calama, 120 kilometers (74 miles) away, when the blast occurred at
4:30 p.m. Monday.
Police said the delay in establishing the exact number of victims
was due to the fact that the bodies were scattered many meters
(yards) from the blast site by the force of the explosion.
Medics, firefighters and members of the Carabineros, Chile's
militarized national police, were dispatched to the site.
Also sent to the site were prosecutors and medical examiners with
the task of investigating the causes of the accident.
The blast occurred about 600 kilometers (372 miles) north of the
San Jose mine, where work continues to rescue 33 miners trapped some
700 meters (2,295 feet) underground since Aug. 5. EFE
ns/bp
[ Back To Homepage ]
|