A man who suffered extensive burns in a gas pipeline explosion near the site of a massive mud spill in Indonesia has died, raising the death toll to 13, a doctor said Sunday. "The patient died after organ failures in the early hours of today (Sunday)," said Urip Murtejo, spokesman for the state-run Dr Sutomo general hospital in Surabaya, the capital of East Java.

The doctor said the patient had suffered 52 percent burns in the explosion. His family had taken his body for burial in Sidoarjo, just south of Surabaya and near the site of the November 22 pipeline blast, he added. The explosion occurred after an underground pipeline burst following subsidence around a nearby gas well that has been spewing mud since May, inundating villages and forcing more than 13,000 people to flee their homes.

The powerful explosion burst a dyke built to contain the mud which has swamped Sidoarjo district. A system of dykes is holding back the steaming mud, which continues to bubble from the earth at a rate of some 120,000 cubic meters each day. Experts have been working to channel the mud to the nearby sea amid fears the impending monsoon may cause the dykes to collapse.
(ABC/CBN, 03/12/2006)