Chemical leak at LG plant in India kills 11, about 1,000 injured

HYDERABAD, India (AP) — A gas leak at a chemical factory owned by a South Korean company in southern India early Thursday left at least 11 people dead and about 1,000 struggling to breathe.

The chemical styrene, used to make plastic and rubber, leaked from the LG Polymers plant in the city of Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh state while workers were preparing to restart the facility after a coronavirus lockdown was eased, officials said.

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 Bhopal in central India.

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,” Vijay Raju, a local resident, said by phone. “For a moment, I thought I would die.”

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 neighbourhood 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 M. Goutham Reddy.

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 kilometres (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 8:00 a.m., officials said.

Residents were advised to cover their noses and mouths with wet masks and stay indoors.

A neurotoxin, styrene gas can immobilise a person within minutes of inhalation and be deadly at high concentrations.

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