by Aude Genet
BRUSSELS, July 30 (AFP) - A gas pipeline in southern Belgium exploded in a ball of fire Friday, killing at least 14 people and injuring 200, many of them seriously, officials said.
Belgian authorities immediately rolled out a high-level disaster reaction plan as Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt broke off a holiday in Italy to fly to the scene of the explosion in the town of Ath.
A health ministry spokesman said that by midday (1000 GMT), officials had numbered "at least 14 dead and 200 injured, including 100 with burns" who were being transported to specialist hospitals.
The state television channel VRT reported at least 15 dead.
Some victims "were thrown hundreds of metres" by the force of the explosion, said Marc Duvivier, a local official.
State-run RTBF television said debris had been found six kilometres (four miles) away. Authorities in Ath set up a temporary mortuary.
Interior Minister Patrick Dewael and Defence Minister Andre Flahaut both rushed to the spot to assess the scale of the disaster.
The health ministry spokesman, Karim Ibourki, said that a gas leak had been detected at 8:30 am and that "when emergency services arrived, there was an explosion." A service station also blew up, he added.
Television pictures showed amateur video footage of thick sheets of flames billowing into the sky.
The high-pressure gas pipeline exploded was on the Ghislenghien industrial estate near a motorway passing through Ath, an interior ministry spokeswoman said.
She said police and firefighters were among the casualties.
"It was a high-pressure gas distribution pipeline which exploded. There are police and firefighters who were there who have been injured," she told AFP.
Fluxys, which operates the gas transport system in Belgium, confirmed there had been a leak on a pipeline that runs between the port of Zeebrugge and the French border.
RTBF said around 60 injured, many of them with massive burns, were taken to an improvised holding centre before being ferried to hospitals by helicopter.
A similar number of people with lesser injuries, many of them also burned, had been taken to the local Ath clinic, it added.
Authorities across the border in France said they were sending ambulances and other emergency service vehicles to help.
Reports had initially suggested the blast occurred in a gasworks currently under construction at Ghislenghien.
Implementing a disaster plan, Belgian officials called on local people to stay inside and to keep doors and windows closed. The motorway was shut.
The Belga news agency said five helicopters had been requisitioned to deal with casualties, and army troops had been called out.
There was no indication that the explosion was due to malicious action.