The chemical styrene, used to make plastic and rubber, leaked from the LG Polymers plant in the city of Vishakhapatnam in
Videos and photos from the area showed dozens of people, including women and children, lying unconscious in the streets, arms open wide with white froth trailing from their mouths. The scene evoked bitter memories of a major industrial disaster in 1984 that left least 4,000 people dead and another 500,000 injured, according to government figures, when methyl isocyanate leaked from a Union Carbide India pesticide plant in
Hundreds of people fled from Thursday's gas leak, some on motorbikes and others carried in open trucks. Some who couldn’t find vehicles raced away barefooted, many with small children slung across their shoulders.
Police officers, some wearing gas masks, rushed from house to house and evacuated about 3,000 people. Struggling to breathe, many people lay on the road as passersby helped them with water.
“No one could breathe. I couldn’t see anything for some time,”
The leak was suspected to have come from large tanks left unattended because of the strict coronavirus lockdown over the past six weeks. The lockdown was eased on Monday, allowing neighborhood shops and factories to resume activities.
“Our initial information is that workers were checking a gas storage tank when it started leaking,” said Industries Minister
Residents said the gas leak began at about 3:30 a.m, when they were woken by a pungent smell.
Officials said a blanket of gas spread over a radius of about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles), sickening people in at least four villages. Rescuers broke open the doors of village homes which were locked from the inside and found some people who had collapsed and transported them to hospitals.
The leak was stopped by
Residents were advised to cover their noses and mouths with wet masks and stay indoors.
A neurotoxin, styrene gas can immobilize a person within minutes of inhalation and be deadly at high concentrations.
Police Commissioner
“The gas leakage is now under control, but the leaked gas can cause nausea and dizziness, so we are investing every effort to ensure proper treatment is provided swiftly,”
It is looking into the cause of the leak but won’t know exactly until Indian authorities complete their investigation, company official
The Vishakhapatnam plant is a leading manufacturer of polystyrene plastic in
The bowl-shaped coastal city, an industrial hub, is known for frequent gas leak accidents. In
“When you’re working with a skeleton staff, due to social distancing measures, the management should have been additionally careful and followed standard safety protocols,” he said.
Sengupta said the unusual situation of chemical plants being shut for weeks meant the risks of such incidents would increase.
Hours after the gas leak at Vishakapatnam, seven workers at a paper mill were hospitalized in the central
“We have not learnt from our past mistakes,” said
Considered the world’s worst industrial accident, the leak at the Union Carbide plant prompted successive Indian governments to pledge to improve safety standards. But many similar accidents, although on a smaller scale, continue across the country.
In
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