New Delhi
At least nine people have been killed while emergency services rushed more than 300 to hospital and evacuated hundreds more from nearby areas, a police official in Andhra Pradesh state said on Thursday. Authorities also warned that the death toll would climb.
The gas leaked out of two 5,000-tonne tanks that had been unattended due to India’s coronavirus lockdown in place since late March, according to a local police officer. Footage on Indian television channels showed people, including women and children, lying in the streets of Visakhapatnam, an industrial port city in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
B K Naik, district hospitals’ coordinator, said that at least 1,000 people had been sent to different hospitals, and that it was feared many others may be unconscious in their homes.
“Another thing is that it is still too early in the morning, and there are people who were sleeping inside their homes (around the gas leak) and are unconscious,” Naik told AFP. “The authorities are checking (in houses) as well. We are working to get people to the hospital. They need oxygenation and fresh air.”
Pictures taken by AFP at the King George Hospital in the city showed two or three patients on each bed, many of them children, and many unconscious. Some of the patients were lying on the beds in the sparse hospital wearing just shorts and without tops or shoes.
The plant operated by LG Polymers is located in the outskirts of Visakhapatnam. The city and the surrounding area are home to around five million people.
“(The gas) was left there because of the lockdown. It led to a chemical reaction and heat was produced inside the tanks, and the gas leaked because of that,” Rani said.—AFP
