Ground-shaking silence

Strange. It's baffling to me why the English language newspapers in the country had failed to carry a news-worthy story such as this one.


Last Friday at about 11.15pm, a huge explosion rocked Butterworth town in Province Wellesley. According to the Chinese press, the explosion was caused by leakage from gas tanks in a shophouse. Colleagues told me that there was speculation that these could be illegally-filled gas tanks.

The ground-shaking explosion was felt some three to five kilometres away. Fire razed through the row of shophouses. Nearby shoplots had their windows shattered and rooftops blown away. It was much like a war zone. To see some pictures of the destruction, click here.