On the 21 September 2001 a huge explosion occurred in the fertilizer factory called AZF in Toulouse, France causing 29 deaths (from the factory, one, a school boy from a neighboring lycee.

I remember being in year 2 and hearing a small explosion which set off an alarm somewhere. so we all went out and our PE teacher told us it was an explosion and to get inside (he was listening to the radio at the time).

Then we hurried back inside and heard an even bigger explosion and the fire alarm went off and so once again we were herded outside with the rest of the school. and then Mr. Albiston came out and told us there was a big cloud that may be poisonous coming towards us and that we should all stay and wait in the hall till our parents took us home. in other words we got the day off school.

The reasons for the explosions are still a little unclear, the government says that a warehouse of ammonium nitrate had exploded following improper handling of this dangerous material, including mixing with chemical impurities. So, the government says that the workers at AZF didn't handle the dangerous things it was using correctly.

Other people say that 

1. a meteorite landed on the chemical storage warehouse.
2. a rocket or explosive blew up.

there are lots of possibilities of what happened but the fact remains that every time I go past the factory or think of what happened that 21 September 2001 it makes my legs tremble.