Servicemen were stunned at what they saw in Gaoqiao Town,when they were searching for victims in this worst-hit area of the catastrophic gas blowout,prior to an operation to capping the burst well in Kaixian County,Chongqing Municipality,southwest China.

Soldiers test water in Baihe Township.(Xinhua Photo)

"Gaoqiao has become a 'ghost town,'and I can never forget what I saw there,"said a member of a Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP)brigade.

Lieutenant Liao Yiquan is even sadder.When he led a search team to his home village,Xiaoyang,they found the dead bodies of his uncle,aunt and niece.Later,Liao came upon his father,who had been blinded by the escaped gas.Liao's mother is still missing.

During the search operation,Liao and his colleagues rescued dozens of villagers,and collected a dozen corpses.One member of the team revived a 70-year old man using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

As of 8:00am Saturday,the PAP troops evacuated over 900villagers to safer areas,and carried 182dead bodies away.

Two hours later,the gas well was capped and the leaking of natural gas was finally brought to a halt.

A 70-member team of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA)chemical troops also participated in the capping maneuver.At the same time,they trained local villagers on ways to protect themselves from the gas.

In related developments,PLA vehicles have transported rescue goods in large quantities to the affected areas,and distributed food and clothes among the local people.

According to previous reports,the tragedy began at 10:00pm Tuesday,when the well in a gas field of the China National Petroleum Corporate burst suddenly and released a high concentration of natural gas.Most of the deaths and injuries werecaused by gas inhalation.