Indonesia puts explosion rescue efforts on hold

SURABAYA, Indonesia, Nov 25 (Reuters) Indonesian rescue workers suspended search efforts today for two people missing after a gas pipeline explosion linked to a devastating mud flow because the temperature of the mud rose too high.

Eleven people died in Wednesday's blast on Java island which occurred in an area where hot mud has been spewing from near an exploratory gas well since the end of May following a drilling accident.

''We have stopped searching now because the mud temperature is more than 60 degrees (Celsius) now,'' M Hernanto, the coordinator of the rescue team, told Reuters.

''Two people have not been found yet, one of them was an escavator operator,'' he said, adding that rescue operations would resume when the temperature of the mud decreased.

The pipeline was located underneath sand-and-gravel dykes made to contain the mud. The transmission pipe broke after land subsidence hiked the pressure, igniting some of the gas.

The mudflow has inundated several villages, dozens of factories and swathes of paddy and sugarcane fields, causing an unfolding environmental disaster in Sidoarjo, an industrial suburb of Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city and port.

The dead and missing due to the blast were soldiers or site workers assigned to help contain the mud.

Efforts to stop the mud torrent have been unsuccessful so far and several government contingency plans failed to materialise for various reasons, including moving key roads and railroad tracks affected by the mudflow.

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

The Banjar Panji well was operated by Indonesia's Lapindo Brantas, a unit of PT Energi Mega Persada, partly owned by the Bakrie Group, which is controlled by the family of Indonesia's chief social welfare minister, Aburizal Bakrie.

The firm has denied the mud flow is directly linked to the drilling operation.

REUTERS BDP VV1305