At least 11 people were killed in a gas leak at a South Korean-owned factory making polystyrene products. The accident also left hundreds of people sick and sparked the evacuation of villagers living nearby, officials said.
The accident occurred some 14km inland from Visakhapatnam, in Andhra Pradesh, at a plant operated by LG Polymers, a unit of South Korea’s biggest petrochemical maker, LG Chem Ltd.
Srijana Gummalla, commissioner of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, said gas from styrene, a principal raw materials at the plant, leaked during the early hours of the morning, when families in the surrounding villages were asleep.
Yashwanth Saikumar Ambati, 23, who lives about 300 metres away from the plant, said he woke up around 4.30am because of a strong smell.
“I went back to sleep and I woke up around 6am because the smell had gotten stronger. My eyes were itchy, and I was feeling drowsy, light-headed and slightly breathless,” he said, adding that neighbours also complained of eye irritation and stomach aches.
In a statement issued from Seoul, LG Chem said that the gas emitted in the leak can cause nausea and dizziness when inhaled, adding that it was seeking to ensure casualties received treatment quickly.
Footage on television channels showed people, including women and children, slumped motionless in the streets after locals raised the alarm in the early hours. “There was utter confusion and panic. People were unable to breathe, they were gasping for air. Those who were trying to escape collapsed on the roads — kids, women and all,” local resident Kumar Reddy, 24, told reporters.
Video from Reuters partner ANI shot later yesterday showed emergency workers in the area rushing to help victims, some of whom appeared to be listless and disoriented. A number of victims lay unconscious on the streetside, as volunteers fanned them and others carried them to ambulances.
A spokesman for LG Chem in Seoul said the leak was discovered by a night shift maintenance worker and has been brought under control.
According to both the company spokesman and Gummalla, the plant was being reopened after the country relaxed a nationwide lockdown that had been imposed on March 25 to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
Yesterday’s incident brought back bad memories of a gas leak at an factory of US chemical firm Union Carbide that killed thousands in Bhopal in 1984, but thankfully it was on a far smaller scale.
“I pray for everyone’s safety and well-being in Visakhapatnam,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet.
S N Pradhan, director general of the National Disaster Response Force, said that at least 11 had died after around 1,000 people living near the plant were exposed to the gas.
Rani, a revenue official in the district, said she received a call at around 4am from a police officer near the facility, who sounded panicky.”He asked me to come to the spot immediately,” Rani told Reuters.
When Rani went there, she saw that people had collapsed unconscious in the village adjoining the 60-acre site of the plant.
“I personally helped more than 15 people get to an ambulance. The victims  had tried to run away from the village but dropped down within a few metres,” she said.
At least one child was among the dead, a policeman at the site told ANI, whose video showed at least two other children being lifted into an ambulance.
Between 300-400 people were hospitalised, Swarupa Rani, an assistant commissioner of police in Visakhapatnam disclosed.
Another 1,500 people had been evacuated, mostly from a neighbouring village.
Areas within approximately 3kms radius of the plant were evacuated, he said, with emergency services going from door-to-door to find anyone left behind.
The state government will give Rs10mn compensation to the families to those who died, and it will also form a panel to investigate the cause of the accident, said P V Ramesh, a senior aide to the chief minister.