A leaking gas pipeline in Belgium exploded today, hurling giant fireballs into the air and killing at least 15 people in the biggest industrial disaster in the country in nearly four decades.
More than 120 other people were injured when the explosion - described by one witness as a "mini-Hiroshima" - ripped through the underground pipeline near the town of Ath, some 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Brussels.
Bodies were catapulted hundreds of metres away and two factories were destroyed in the industrial zone of Ghislenghien. The explosion carved out a large crater.
Rescue workers survey the scene of the huge explosion in the industrial park of Ghislenghien, near Brussels
"It looks like a war zone," said fire department spokesman Mr Francis Boileau. "There were bodies in parking lots, in the fields, burned out cars in an area half a kilometre wide."
Mr Olivier Rampelberg, who lives three km (two miles) from the scene, told RTBF television: "It sounded like continuous thunder ... Then little grains of scorched earth rained down."
US troops who have a base nearby helped Belgian authorities and France offered military medical teams.
The regional civil protection agency gave a provisional toll of at least 15 dead and 122 injured. The death toll could rise as 35 people were in a critical condition with severe burns.
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt cut short a holiday in Italy and flew in a military transport plane to join Prince Laurent, a member of Belgium's royal family, near the disaster site.