NEW DELHI, November 29 — More than 35 people have been taken to hospital after chlorine gas leaked at a factory making paint preservatives in Mandideep town, central India, Saturday.
"Five cylinders of 90 kg [198 pounds] each had been kept in the factory and suddenly gas started leaking from one of them. Gas leaked for almost 40 minutes before the cylinder was put into water," director of the factory Deepak Joisha claimed, Sputnik correspondent reported.
Chlorine gas leaked from the factory and harmed more than 35 workers of the nearby factory that produces batteries, according to the local Police Officer Narendra Kumar Rathode.
All the affected persons have been admitted to a hospital in Mandideep, Madhya Pradesh state, but three of them have been transferred to Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state, as their condition was serious.
The incident comes after the case at a paper factory in Madhya Pradesh Shahdol district last week, when 17 workers fell ill after inhaling chlorine gas.
Moreover, the world's worst industrial tragedy also took place in Madhya Pradesh state. It occurred in 1984 and is known as Bhopal gas tragedy that claimed lives of more than three thousand people, when gas leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal.
