Daily Times

An industrial gas leak killed 11 people in India, an official said Sunday. “Eleven dead and four in hospital. Rescue operation is on,” the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP after the incident in Ludhiana in the northern state of Punjab.

The gas leak happened in Giaspura, an industrial area in Ludhiana. The official said they were yet to ascertain what kind of gas leaked or the source of the leak. Industrial gas leaks blamed on poor safety standards and insufficient checks are common in India.

Last August, at least 112 women were hospitalised after a gas leak at an apparel manufacturing plant in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

That followed a similar accident in June when around 200 women fell unconscious after a gas leak in the same area, broadcaster NDTV reported. In 2020, at least 15 people were killed and hundreds hospitalised after a gas leak at a chemical plant in Visakhapatnam, an industrial port city in the same state.

In 1984, India witnessed one of its worst industrial disasters when gas leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, a city in central India.

At least 3,500 people living around the plant operated by Union Carbide died in the days that followed the leak. People continue to suffer the effects to this day. Children are still born disfigured, with webbed feet and hands, and experience stunted growth because of the gas that affected their mothers.