Toxic gas leak kills 9 more people

PANIC IN KARACHI AMID CONCERNS OVER GOVERNMENT INACTION

Atoxic gas leak killed nine more people in the southern port city of Karachi, police said yesterday, bringing the death toll so far to 14 in the incident that has sickened hundreds and mystified authorities.

The new deaths have set off a panic in Karachi and raised concerns that the city’s government, which has failed to identify the source of the leak and the type of gas involved, is at a loss in dealing with the situation. Officials insist there is no suspicion of sabotage.

The apparently odourless gas, which causes severe breathing problems, has sickened hundreds since the leak first struck in Karachi’s coastal neighbourhood of Kamari on Sunday night, when people suddenly started rushing to local hospitals.

Authorities said they were planning to evacuate residents from Kamari to safer places by yesterday evening.

All the stricken people — hospitals said they had treated more than 650 — were residents of Kamari. “There are thousands of shipping containers in the port area and authorities are checking them to determine if the toxic gas emitted from there,” Adil Malik, a local police chief, said. A patient in a Karchi hospital, Babar Bahadur, said Monday that he first felt an ache in his eyes and pain in chest.

“My heart started beating suddenly very, very fast,” he said and recounted how he immediately rushed to the hospital where he was treated and felt better “after quite some time.”

Symptoms

He said his son experienced some of the same symptoms and was also briefly treated at the hospital. Port officials insisted no gas leaks occurred at any of their facilities.

Karachi is the capital of southern Sindh province, Pakistan’s largest city and the country’s chief commercial hub. It has oil refineries nearby and a key installation of Pakistan’s navy is also located there.