New Delhi: Six factory workers died and 22 others were hospitalised after they inhaled toxic fumes leaking from a chemical tanker parked near a factory in Gujarat’s Surat district early Thursday morning, officials said.
The workers were in the dyeing factory, located in Sachin industrial area, when the incident took place, Surat Municipal Corporation’s (SMC) chief fire officer Basant Pareek said.
The fire department received a call around 4:25 am, he said, adding that 25 to 26 workers fell unconscious after inhaling the toxic fumes coming out of the chemical tanker parked on a roadside near the factory and were rushed to the new civil hospital.
“Six people have died, while 22 others are hospitalised and undergoing treatment,” the civil hospital’s resident medical officer, Omkar Chaudhary, said.
“Chemicals were being illegally discharged from a tanker into a rivulet close to the mill, which possibly reacted with another chemical in the water and created toxic gas,” Pareek told Reuters.
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“The workers inhaled the gas and started feeling suffocation. When we reached the scene, the workers were found collapsed on the road in their attempt to escape.”
The fire department later managed to close the tanker’s valve to stop the leakage, he said.
Two stray dogs also died, it said.
Some people from the nearby areas were evacuated as a precautionary measure, the civic body said.
Chief minister Bhupendra Patel expressed grief over the incident.
“Many people have died due to gas leak in Surat. May God give peace to the departed souls and strength to the family members to bear this suffering. I pray for the health of those who have fallen ill in this incident,” the chief minister said in a tweet.
Senior police official Sharad Singhal told Reuters that officers were investigating the incident and no arrests have been made yet.
“This was not an accidental gas leakage. Hazardous chemicals were being discharged when the incident took place,” he said.
India suffered the world’s worst industrial disaster in 1984 when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory owned by American Union Carbide Corporation in the city of Bhopal, killing more than 5,000 people.
(With inputs from PTI)