At Least Five Dead, Over 200 Hospitalised After Gas Leak at Chemical Plant in India
According to police, a gas leak took place at around 03:30 a.m. local time at a plant belonging to LG Polymers India Pvt Ltd located at RR Venkatapuram village.
At least five people are dead while over 200 have been hospitalised after toxic gas leaked from a chemical plant belonging to South Korean multinational LG in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam on Thursday morning, officials said.
Video emerged on social media showing dozens of people, mostly children and the old, fainting within their homes and on the streets.
“The police are unable to enter the colonies because of the foul smell. They went round the colonies asking the people to come out of their homes and move to safer places”, an assistant commissioner of police, Swaroopa Rani, said.
Police evacuated the area around the factory. A National and State Disaster Response Force are carrying out rescue operations.
District collector V Vinay Chand said that the incident took place after the plant - owned and operated by a branch company for multinational consumer products giant LG Corporation - was recommissioned and sarin gas erupted from one of its chambers.
"There were attempts to bring the gas under control by spraying but it did not work," V Vinay Chand said.
Officials confirmed to media that the gas spread into 20 villages around the plant. Local legislator P Gana Babu said ambulances meant for Coronavirus cases were diverted to move people to safer places.
The plant was scheduled to reopen on Thursday after 40 days of closure due to the nationwide lockdown imposed by the Narendra Modi government in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The LG Polymers company was originally established in 1961 as Hindustan Polymers for manufacturing polystyrene and its co-polymers in Visakhapatnam. The company merged with McDowell & Company Limited of UB Group in 1978, eventually joining under the umbrella of the giant South Korean multinational.
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