Taiwan's national flag flies at half mast over the Presidential Office in Taipei on August 5, 2014 to pay homage to the dozens of people killed in the recent TransAsia Airways crash and massive gas explosions in the southern city of Kaohsiung. - AFP
Kaohsiung lies adjacent to a huge petrochemical complex housing dozens of plants and many pipelines run under the densely packed city.
The explosions were the second disaster to strike Taiwan in just over a week, after a TransAsia Airways plane crashed with the loss of 48 people on July 23.
Government spokesman Sun Lih-chyun told AFP the Taiwanese flag would be flown at half-mast from public buildings for three days of national mourning for "our compatriots who died unfortunately in the two accidents".
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