Gas pipeline explosion kills six in Indonesia

SURABAYA, Indonesia, Nov 2 (Reuters) An Indonesian gas pipeline exploded, killing at least six people and injuring nine others today near Indonesia's second largest city of Surabaya on Java island, officials and state media said.

Antara, the official state news agency, said the burst in a part of the state-owned Pertamina East Java Gas Pipeline killed six people and caused ''massive fires''.

Win Hendrarso, chief of Sidaorjo regency near Surabaya, told Reuters earlier: ''We have identified five people who died'' and said that at least nine others were injured. He said there could be more victims.

Officials said most of those killed by the accident, which occurred at around 1800 hrs IST, were from the military and other government personnel involved in trying to secure a mud flow area and control damage from it.

Authorities have been struggling for months to plug a flow of hot mud that experts say could have been triggered by a crack about 6,000 feet deep inside an exploratory well drilling operation near Surabaya.

It was not immediately clear if the mud flow was a factor in the pipeline blast.

A police official who declined to be named said the pipeline problem had been contained as of late today but did not indicate whether the pipe, which ran through the mudflow area, was continuing to leak.

Indonesian television showed panicked residents fleeing the area in cars and on motorcycles.

More than 10,000 people have so far been displaced by the mud, gushing at a rate of 50,000 cubic metres (1.75 million cubic feet) a day from the well.

Reuters SBA VP0205