ATH, Belgium - With flags at half mast, Belgium held a national day of mourning yesterday as a funeral took place for seven victims of last week's massive gas explosion, the country's worst industrial accident in nearly 40 years.
At least 18 people were killed and more than 120 injured after an explosion ripped through a leaky gas pipeline at a nearby industrial zone last Friday. The local public prosecutor's office is investigating the blast.
The latest body was retrieved yesterday from the charred remains of a building that had been flattened by the explosion.
Among the dead were three French and two Italians.
The death toll threatens to rise as many of the injured are in a critical condition with severe burns.
Heir-to-the-throne Prince Philippe, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and other government officials joined hundreds of mourners at a church in this southwestern town to pay their last respects to the dead.
Five fire fighters were among the seven being mourned.
Draped in the Belgian tricolor flag, their coffins were carried by the dead's solemn colleagues up a crowded street and into the church, to the sound of a dirge played by a brass band.
The two other coffins were those of a police officer and an employee of the power utility Electrabel.
"Fire fighters, they are soldiers of fire ... They are not supermen ... They know that danger lurks around the corner and still they choose to place their strength and courage in the service of others," Interior Minister Patrick Dewael said in a reading at the mass.
Families of the other victims have chosen to hold private ceremonies to mourn the loss of their loved ones.
The gas explosion was the deadliest in Belgium since 1967, when a truck carrying liquid gas blew up, killing 22 people.
In the country's worst industrial catastrophe, 262 people were killed in a mine explosion at Marcinelle in 1956, including 136 Italian migrant workers.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
