India gas leak leaves 11 dead, 1,000 seriously ill as bodies, choking victims lie in street

India
People fan a woman lying on a roadside after the gas leak at the plants. Photo credit: Reuters

Toxic gas leak has left at least 11 people killed including an eight-year-old girl and hundreds more have been taken to hospital in India.

People were filmed collapsing in the streets of Vishakhapatnam, on India’s east coast, on Thursday morning after a leak at an LG Polymers chemical plant in the city.

The leak happened as workers were trying to restart the plant – which was closed during India’s coronavirus lockdown – and triggered a fire in two storage tanks.

Bodies lay crumpled on the ground beside toppled motorcycles and cars as suffocating toxic gas rose from a chemical plant in southern India in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Roads near the site of the fatal leak in the state of Andhra Pradesh were filled with hundreds of people fleeing the noxious gas, according to footage from the scene, many carrying the injured and unconscious over their shoulders.

Rescuers from India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) wearing hazmat suits and gas masks were also seen running with limp bodies in their arms.

Authorities have confirmed at least 11 people dead and hundreds more have been hospitalized after the LG Polymers plant incident, which lies near a village of at least 3,000 people on the outskirts of the city of Visakhapatnam.