Various industrial tankers and police officers parked at a gas leak site in Surat, a city in Gujarat, western India, on January 6, 2022. (Screenshot via AP / Epoch Times)
New Delhi — Police said at least six people were killed in a toxic gas leak from an industrial tank truck on Thursday in western India.
According to police officer Mahesh Patel, another 25 people were hospitalized after inhaling gas in an industrial complex in the city of Surat, Gujarat.
The Times Now news website reported that a gas leak occurred when the driver tried to dump waste into a drain from a parked tanker. Affected people were working or sleeping in a nearby factory.
Other details were not immediately available.
Negligence and lack of safety standards often contribute to such accidents in India.
In 2020, a gas leak at a South Korean-owned chemical plant killed 12 people and left hundreds sick in Visakhapatnam, a port city in Andhra Pradesh.
The gas leaked from the factory was styrene, which is used in the manufacture of plastics and rubber. Styrene gas is a neurotoxin and can immobilize people within minutes of inhalation.
A committee appointed by the Supreme Environmental Court of India has accused “serious human failure” and the lack of basic safety standards for gas leaks in factories.
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