Toulouse chemical factory explosion
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Expand French Template:Infobox event On 21 September 2001, an explosion occurred at the AZF (French initialism for AZote Fertilisant, i.e. nitrogen fertiliser) fertiliser factory in Toulouse, France, belonging to the Grande Paroisse branch of the Total group.
Three hundred tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored (the maximum capacity was 2,000 tonnes) in hangar 221 222.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The entire factory was destroyed, making a crater with a depth of about Template:Convert and a diameter of Template:Convert.<ref name="Barthelemy">Template:Citation</ref> Steel girders were found Template:Convert away from the explosion site.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The blast measured 3.4 on the Richter scale,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> with an estimated power equivalent to 20-40 tons of TNT.<ref name="Barthelemy"/> The explosion was heard 80 km (50 miles) away.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Due to the acoustics of the hills and the loud sound, the explosion was reported as occurring in multiple places. Police at first believed that at least five bombs had simultaneously gone off. There is still controversy over the exact number of explosions.Template:According to whom
The factory was close to the city: one of the most inhabited areas, Le Mirail, is Template:Convert away. Around ten percent of the inhabitants of Toulouse had to be evacuated.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
VictimsEdit
The disaster caused 31 deaths, about 30 seriously wounded, and 2,500 light casualties.<ref>government report (archive)</ref> Two thirds of the city's windows were shattered, causing 70 eye wounds.Template:Citation needed The total damages paid by insurance groups exceeded 1.5 billion euros.Template:Citation needed
InvestigationEdit
Template:Update section On 4 October 2001, France's then Environment Minister Yves Cochet announced that the explosion "may have been a terrorist attack" (the explosion occurred ten days after the September 11 attacks) and identified Hassan Jandoubi, a plant sub-contractor killed in the blast, as a person under investigation. French anti-terrorist authorities were prohibited by the Toulouse prosecutor from searching Jandoubi's house for five days after the incident.<ref name= LRB>Paul Seabright What Explosion? London Review of Books Nov 1 2001</ref>
Police declared that Jandoubi had "possible Islamic fundamentalist sympathies", yet by the time the search was finally conducted, they said that Jandoubi's girlfriend had disposed of all traces of his clothes and photos. Authorities described the delay as damaging to the investigation.<ref name= LRB-2>Paul Seabright AZF: L'enquête assassinée AZF: l'enquête assassinée</ref><ref name=CNN>Anti-Terror probe into French blast Template:Webarchive CNN 4 Oct 2001</ref><ref name=MD>Explosion in France may have been Terrorism Template:Webarchive The Michigan Daily, 5 Oct 2001</ref><ref name= Guard>Terrorism link to French explosion The Guardian, 5 Oct 2001</ref>
In May 2006, the official investigation released a final report supporting a chemical accident theory in which sodium dichlorocyanurate mixed with 500 kg of ammonium nitrate spilled on the main nitrate pile 20 minutes before the explosion.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Template:In lang Daniel Dissy : "AZF-Toulouse, Quelle vérité ?", 2006, Template:ISBN, Library of Congress Control No : 2007370387.
- Template:In lang Franck Hériot & Jean-Christian Tirat : "AZF: L'enquête assassinée", Plon. Template:ISBN
- Template:In lang Daniel Dissy : "AZF, l'Enquête secrète - Le Mystère de la Trace Noire ou comment AZF a explosé", éditions des Traboules, Paris, 2009, Template:ISBN.