New Delhi, Dec 27 (EFE).- At least 50 people were hospitalized due to an ammonia gas leak at a fertilizer plant in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, official sources said on Wednesday.
The gas leak came to light close to midnight late Tuesday at an industrial neighborhood north of the city of Chennai, when nearby residents reported eye-irritation and difficulty breathing, according to a statement by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.
“Currently, 52 people are under continuous monitoring,” said the statement, adding that those affected had been transferred to nearby hospitals.
The leak occurred in a subsea pipeline from a fertilizer plant, and although it was remedied within 20 minutes, according to local authorities, ammonia concentration in the air was found to be five times higher than usual.
In this regard, the company in charge of the pipeline, Coromandel International, said in a statement that they detected the leak at 11.30 pm local time and brought the situation to normal “in the shortest time.”
However, the Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday ordered the temporary closure of the facility until further notice, pending an expert committee investigation into the causes of the incident.
In June, at least 17 people were injured due to a gas leak at a plant run by Tata Steel in the eastern state of Odisha.
The largest industrial accident in the history of the Asian country occurred in 1984, when an overnight toxic gas leak in Bhopal in central India claimed the lives of 5,295 people, according to official figures.
However, according to victims’ associations, the actual number of deaths is estimated at around 25,000. EFE
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