NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      MONTREAL (CWNews.com) - Two women in their 60s, including a Catholic nun, were killed on Tuesday when a natural gas leak ignited in a Montreal homeless, and 30 more were injured.

      A third shelter worker was still missing in the rubble of the collapsed three-story building hours after the explosion. "Two people have died. We are still in shock," said Sister Nicole Fournier, one of the Grey Nuns who ran the shelter. The missing person is believed to be a nun in her 70s. Most of the injured had minor cuts and fractures, but five were in serious condition.

      Police said the powerful explosion, which occurred just after noon eastern time, was caused by a gas leak after a workman cut into a gas line. "We smelled gas and thought maybe we should leave, then it exploded," one shelter worker told reporters. "It went boom and that was it," said an elderly woman as she helped a shelter volunteer walk away from the scene. "It was like a building demolition. It came down vertically," said eyewitness Louis Fournier.