Rescuers on Saturday said at least 25 people were killed and up to 20 were missing following a massive blast that destroyed a petrochemical plant in this southwestern French city.
Some 400 firefighters working through the night recovered six more bodies while a badly wounded man died in hospital overnight.
Toulouse mayor Philippe Douste-Blazy said Saturday morning that the death toll had risen to 26 people, with 20 people found at the site of the plant and six in the surrounding area.
More than 650 were in hospital following Friday's apparent accident, which residents initially feared was a terrorist attack similar to those on the United States.
Among those killed at the AZF chemicals plant were workers, shoppers at stores adjoining the factory and a 15-year-old schoolboy.
Rescue efforts were interrupted at about 4:00 am (0200 GMT) when workers found a nitric acid tank with a feared leak, but recovery work in the shell of the ruined plant resumed a little over an hour later.
A spokesman for the local Haute-Garonne region said 658 people had been hospitalized, about 50 of them with serious injuries, while some 600 others were treated for slight wounds and sent home.
The Friday mid-morning blast left a 50-meter wide, 15-meter deep crater and destroyed two large buildings at the site as well as several others nearby, including an appliance store where several people were killed, authorities said.
A temporary morgue for bodies pulled out of the wreckage and a place for families of victims to gather were to be ready by midday Saturday, local officials said.
The mayor, firefighters and regional officials issued an appeal Saturday for construction workers and craftsmen to volunteer their help in repairing public and residential buildings damaged by the explosion.
Some 240 people whose homes were ruined were given temporary lodging in local gymnasiums but most others affected sought refuge with relatives and friends.
A police source said measures had been taken to prevent looting of stores near the catastrophe but that no incidents had been reported.
Electricity service resumed Friday evening and city officials said drinking water was reported safe.
But about 1,000 households saw their gas switched off due to security measures taken in the immediate surroundings of the plant.
Road travel was blocked between the southwestern towns of Empalot and Faourette, where it was feared that damaged buildings could still collapse.
The plant site was operated by a company called Grande Paroisse, which in turn is majority-owned by Atofina, a specialist unit of the Franco-Belgian TotalFinaElf group.
According to the Institute of Global Physics in Strasbourg, the explosion measured 3.4 on the Richter scale, which is normally used to measure earthquakes.
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who is also a council member for the region, and Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant immediately went to Toulouse and were later followed by President Jacques Chirac.
The plant, which employs about 500 people, is located near an explosives factory that produces rocket fuel for the European space rocket Ariane -- TOULOUSE, France (AFP)
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