By an Online Correspondent
PARIS, Sept. 24 -- Atofina reported Monday that 29 persons were killed and 782 injured in a blast that devastated its Grande Paroisse fertilizer site 4 km south of Toulouse Friday.
The explosion, which scientists said equated to a 3.4 earthquake on the Richter scale, destroyed and damaged many buildings around the site, including schools, hospitals, and homes. The blast left a crater 5 m deep and 50 m wide.
It was not known what caused the accident, which occurred in a storage depot containing 300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. The product only explodes if brought to a high temperature in association with a fuel.
About 1,000 people worked at the fertilizer plant and two other plants nearby. All were closed. The town had built up around the plants over the last 75 years.
The fertilizer plant had a capacity of 1,200 tonnes/day of ammonia and 1,000 tonnes/day of urea.
