Servicemen were stunned at what they saw in Gaoqiao Town when they were searching for victims in the worst-hit area of the catastrophic gas blowout, which killed at least 198 people, prior to an operation to capping the burst well in Kaixian County, Chongqing Municipality.

　　"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 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 8:00 am on Saturday, the PLA troops evacuated over 900 villagers to safer areas, and carried 182 dead bodies away.