Eleven people have been killed and over 1000 hospitalized after a gas leak at a chemical plant which leaked out of a 5000 tonne tanks that has been left unattended due to the out break of Coronavirus.
The incident happened on Thursday on the East Coast of India as stated by a local police officer.
Footage on Indian television channels showed people, including women and children, lying in the streets of Visakhapatnam, an industrial port city in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
“We can confirm at least five deaths right now. More will be confirmed late,” Swaroop Rani, an assistant police commissioner, in Visakhapatnam, told AFP.
B K Naik, district hospitals coordinator, said that at least 1,000 people had been sent to different hospitals, and that it was feared many others may be unconscious in their homes.
“Another thing is that it is still too early in the morning, and there are people who were sleeping inside their homes (around the gas leak) and are unconscious,” Naik told AFP.
“The authorities are checking (in houses) as well. We are working to get people to the hospital. They need oxygenation and fresh air.”
Pictures taken by AFP at the King George Hospital in the city showed two or three patients on each bed, many of them children, and many unconscious.
Some of the patients were lying on the beds in the sparse hospital wearing just shorts and without tops or shoes.
