Off the wire
• Japanese defense chief visits controversial helicopter-carrier, U.S. aircraft carrier  • Chinese shares close higher Tuesday  • China Focus: Care home nurse shortage challenges aging China  • Foreign exchange rates in India  • S. Korea's export volume growth slows in July  • Top Pakistani official visits Belarus, Kazakhstan to seek NSG support  • Commentary: S. Korea, U.S. should resume dialogue with DPRK instead of war games  • Action comedy "Line Walker" tops Chinese box office  • Over 70 garment, shoe factories in Cambodia shut down this year  • Typhoon Mindulle lashes northern Japan, 9,000 evacuated in Hokkaido  
You are here: 　 Home

(Recast) Scores of people fall sick in Bangladesh amid gas leak from fertilizer factory container

Xinhua, August 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Scores of people were hospitalized with respiratory illness until the early hours of Tuesday as ammonia gas leaked from a container in Anwara on the outskirts of Bangladesh's southeastern seaport city Chittagong.

A local police official told Xinhua on Tuesday morning that many fell sick after inhaling the gas that spread from the leakage at Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilizer factory container in Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka.

The leakage from the reserve container started at around 10:30 p.m. local time on Monday, said the official who did not like to be named.

He said the container had stored 500 tons of Ammonium Phosphate.

Panic gripped entire area adjacent to the factory as more and more people had then suffered heavily smelly air, severe irritation of the nose and throat, and respiratory discomfort.

According to the local police official, at least 57 people were admitted to a Chittagong hospital with breathing trouble.

Police and fire crew rushed to the area soon after receiving information and immediate actions were taken to repair the gas leakage which is yet to come under full control. Endit