Six killed by toxic gas in India after illegal chemical dump

Chemicals illegally discharged into stream near a mill as people worked inside

Workers of a dyeing and printing mill receive treatment in a hospital after they inhaled toxic gas, in Surat, India. Reuters

Six mill workers in India have been killed and more than 20 taken to hospital after inhaling toxic gas caused by an illegal dump of waste chemicals, officials said.

The incident took place at a dyeing and printing mill in the industrial city of Surat in Gujarat state at around 4am local time on Thursday.

Chemicals were illegally discharged into a stream near the mill as people worked inside, police and fire officers said.

“Chemicals were being illegally discharged from a tanker into a rivulet close to the mill, which possibly reacted with another chemical in the water and created toxic gas,” said Surat Municipal Corporation's chief fire officer Basant Pareek.

“The workers inhaled the gas and started feeling suffocation. When we reached the scene, the workers were found collapsed on the road in their attempt to escape.”

Six workers died and 23 people were admitted to hospital, with seven in a critical condition and on ventilators, said Mr Pareek.

Senior police official Sharad Singhal said officers were investigating but had yet to make any arrests.

“This was not an accidental gas leakage. Hazardous chemicals were being discharged when the incident took place,” he said.

India suffered the world's worst industrial disaster in 1984 when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory owned by American Union Carbide Corporation in the city of Bhopal, killing more than 5,000 people.