A gas leak at a pharmaceutical plant in India has claimed two lives and sickened six others. The accident took place on Sunday at a Rinilife Science plant in Indore, reports CNN's Indian affiliate IBN Live.
The hospitalized workers are in critical condition, the report says, and the two fatalities occurred instantly. All are the result of inhalation. Police have not disclosed the type of gas released. According to Zee News, the production manager of the factory has been arrested by the police.
Deaths are uncommon in pharmaceutical manufacturing; accidents occur infrequently. In northern China last August, an ammonia gas leak at a pharmaceutical factory sickened more than 200 people. Improper equipment operation was blamed for a pipe burst during the unloading of 30 tons of the gas at the Chifeng Pharmaceutical Factory in Chifeng city. The incident led to the evacuation of homes within a mile of the plant.
The Rini accident in India occurred within days of the 25th anniversary of a massive leak of methyl isocyanate gas at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal that killed thousands of people while affecting hundreds of thousands.
- here's the IBN report
- check out the Zee News article
- see the China plant coverage