VISAKHAPATNAM: Gas leaked from a chemical plant in Visakhapatnam in the early hours of Thursday and quickly spread to villages in a five-kilometre radius, killing at least 11 people and impacting about 1,000, many collapsing to the ground as they tried to escape the toxic vapours.
Hours after the styrene gas leak around 2.30 am from the multinational LG Polymers Plant at RR Venkatapuram village near here, scores of people could be seen lying unconscious on sidewalks, near ditches and on the road, raising fears of a major industrial disaster.
Among the dead were two children, aged six and nine, a first year medical student and two people who fell into a well while fleeing the vapours from the plant, getting ready to reopen after the lockdown.
The death toll from the accident could go up with at least 20 people on ventilator support.
A preliminary report by the Factories Department indicated the leak was caused by a technical glitch in the refrigeration unit attached to the two styrene tanks, district officials said.
The leak at the LG Polymers Limited was so intense that a “only around 9.30 am could we understand what exactly it was as the thick fog that formed in the area cleared,” District Collector V Vinay Chand said.
“Styrene monomer is normally in a liquid state and is safe below a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius. But, because of the malfunctioning of the refrigeration unit, the chemical started gasifying,” he said, quoting the preliminary report submitted by the Factories Department.
The technical glitch caused the temperature in the chemical storage tank to rise above the safety level of 20 degrees, leading to gasification and consequent evaporation of styrene.
Taking stock of the situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had spoken to officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
“I pray for everyone’s safety and well-being in Visakhapatnam,” Modi said in a tweet.
Addressing a joint press conference in Delhi in the afternoon National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and NDMA officials said 11 people died and 1,000 were exposed, to the gas. NDRF Director General SN Pradhan said NDRF personnel would be at the spot till it is totally plugged.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy has ordered a probe into the matter, state Director General of Police D Gautam Sawang said.
The grim scenes recalled the Bhopal gas leak, the world’s worst industrial disaster in which more than 3,000 people were killed and lakhs affected when methyl isocyanate gas leaked out from a Union Carbide plant on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984.
State Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy said the LG Polymers unit was supposed to reopen on Thursday. He said the state government is airlifting 500 kg of inhibitors from Gujarat to neutralise the chemicals. (PTI)
