Blast Toll in France Hits 29; 650 Hurt

Rescue workers with search dogs scoured the ruins of a chemical fertilizer plant Saturday looking for survivors of an explosion that toppled houses, killed 29 people and left at least 650 hospitalized.

With many houses damaged or destroyed within a nearly 1 1/2-mile radius of the leveled plant after Friday’s apparently accidental blast, 150 families were moving into gymnasiums or homes offered by other residents.

The death toll rose to 29, according to regional Prefect Hubert Fournier. Of the injured, about 30 were “between life and death,” Toulouse Mayor Philippe Douste-Blazy said.

An unknown number of people was still missing by late Saturday, presumably buried amid tons of rubble by the explosion, which experts said had the strength of a magnitude 3.2 earthquake.

Rescue workers used search dogs to sniff through the debris for survivors. Much of the AZF plant just outside Toulouse was in ruins, with only jagged beams still standing in some places.

The cause remained unclear, but officials said it appeared to be an industrial accident.