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Huge blast rocks French college
A huge explosion has ripped through a chemistry institute in Mulhouse, eastern France, seriously injuring at least one woman, firefighters say. A fire was raging after the blast at 1225 (1125 GMT) and thick smoke billowed over the scene, the French news agency AFP reported. It is not yet clear how the explosion happened.
Could be a gas leak. Could have been a homework assignment gone bad. We'll have to wait and see.
The institute is part of a 25-hectare campus near the city centre and 8,000 students are enrolled there. The surrounding area was evacuated and teachers were doing a head count of students, French radio reported. The explosion is reported to have been heard two kilometres away and it broke the windows of nearby buildings.

Additional: MULHOUSE, France, March 24 (Reuters) - A huge explosion destroyed a research building at a French university in the eastern city of Mulhouse on Friday, injuring a large number of people, the emergency services said. Rescue workers faced thick smoke when they arrived at the institute of chemistry on the university campus, a Reuters witness said. The reason for the blast, which was heard across much of the city, was not immediately known. "There are a large number of victims," one rescuer told Reuters.

French television said at least one person was seriously hurt and witness Cedric Ridepi told the LCI TV station that he had seen "the inside (of the building) devastated. There were several seats of fire. "There were screams from inside. I saw one wounded person," he added. A student in a nearby building, who gave her name only as Aude, said there "was a huge explosion and all the windows were shattered".

The UNEF student union said the complex was not occupied by students as part of protests against a youth jobs law that have hit universities around France.
Posted by: Steve 2006-03-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=146451