Deadly gas leak at chemical plant in India

HYDERABAD, INDIA—A gas leak at a chemical factory owned by a South Korean company in southern India early Thursday left at least 11 people dead and about 1,000 struggling to breathe.

The chemical styrene, used to make plastic and rubber, leaked from the LG Polymers plant in the city of Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh state while workers were preparing to restart the facility after a coronavirus lockdown was eased, officials said.

Videos and photos from the area showed dozens of people, including women and children, lying unconscious in the streets, arms open wide with white froth trailing from their mouths.

The scene evoked bitter memories of a major industrial disaster in 1984 that left at least 4,000 people dead and another 500,000 injured, according to government figures, when methyl isocyanate leaked from a Union Carbide India pesticide plant in Bhopal in central India.

Hundreds of people fled from Thursday’s gas leak, some on motorbikes and others carried in open trucks. Some who couldn’t find vehicles raced away barefoot, many with small children slung across their shoulders.

Police officers, some wearing gas masks, rushed from house to house and evacuated about 3,000 people. Struggling to breathe, many people lay on the road as passersby helped them with water. The leak was suspected to have come from large tanks left unattended because of the strict coronavirus lockdown over the past six weeks. The lockdown was eased on Monday.