11 dead, thousands evacuated in gas leak at India plant

Bloomberg

An overnight gas leak at an LG Chem Ltd polymer plant in southern India has killed at least 11 people and forced the evacuation of thousands in the city of Visakhapatnam after the company tried to restart operations following the partial easing of the country’s coronavirus lockdown.
“The unfortunate event took place past midnight when they tried to restart the polymer plant which is pretty old,” said PV Ramesh, secretary to the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, the southern state where the accident took place. The government will issue new safety guidelines for factories being restarted after the lockdown to avoid more such accidents, Ramesh said.
Teams from India’s National Disaster Response Force helped in the evacuations on Thursday morning, Director General S N Pradhan said. Although the teams were still doing a door-to-door search, the “worst seems to be over,” said Pradhan.
About 400 people have been hospitalised and three are on ventilators, M Venu Gopal Reddy, additional district magistrate of Visakhapatnam district said over phone. The accident took place at 3:30 am and soon after people complained of eye irritations and breathlessness, he said. Hospitals were able to provide relief as they were stocked with oxygen supplies and ventilators to deal with possible coronavirus infections, according to Ramesh.