Kaixian County of southwestern Chongqing Municipality has set up eight resettlement sites to take care of the residents evacuated from around the site of a leaking gas well.

Firefighters work on a water pipeline near a leaking gas well in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. Emergency crews on 27th March failed to cap the well, and more than 10,000 residents who were evacuated had to remain away from their homes. [Xinhua]

More than 10,000 people living around the Luojia No. 2 well in Gaoqiao Town of Kaixian, have been evacuated after the accident happend Saturday at the gas well run by the China National Petroleum Corporation's Sichuan Provincial Petroleum Administration.

Each of the resettlement sites, mainly in schools and governmental office buildings, has more than 70 medical workers for disinfection and supervising food safety, said Jiang Youyi, secretary of the county's committee of Communist Party of China.

Besides, 14 medical clinics have been set up to provide medical services to the evacuees, said Jiang, adding the clinics have treated more than 2,500 residents in four days.

No epidemic or food poisoning case has been reported, the county's health bureau said.

Luo Tianxi, a farmer from Gaoqiao, was moved to live at a junior high school in the county seat of Kaixian, one of the resettlement sites, with his families after the gas leak.

"We have lived here for four days and the food, lodging and medical services here are satisfactory," said Luo.

A doctor working at the medical clinic of the resettlement site, a classroom, told Xinhua that the patients coming to the clinic mainly suffer from cold or digestive system disease, like stomachache, and those with serious diseases would be sent to hospitals in the county.

The county has made preparations for a long-time resettlement for the evacuees.

"We are making all the hotels and more governmental offices, like meeting rooms, in the county ready for take in the evacuated residents," said Jiang.

Meanwhile, the second plan to cap the leaking gas well was suspended late Wednesday night after unknown conditions occurred deep down the well, according to the headquarters dealing with the accident.

The gas well is within the vicinity of the Luojia No. 16H Gas Well, where a deadly gas blowout killed 243 people on December 23, 2003.