Chennai: A large number of people who rushed out of their houses from many areas in Visakhapatnam after social media rumors of a second leak in LG Polymers factory during the wee hours of today started returning to their houses in some hours.
Though normalcy returned in many areas, people can be seen with fear. Most of the people who evacuated from their homes spent the night sitting in their four-wheelers on the road or stretching out on footpaths.
On social media, rumours stating that the factory would explode and that there was another leak sprouted. This led people 4 to 5 km away from the plant to move out of their houses, causing traffic snarls on the National Highway at 1 am.
On Thursday, the country woke up to the news of a gas leak from a chemical plant in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam, which killed at least 11 people and resulted in the displacement of about 1,000. The incident needs to be fully investigated by local authorities, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.
“We obviously send our condolences to the victims and hope for quick recovery to those who have been impacted. And I think these kinds of incidents need to be fully investigated by the local authorities,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, reported PTI.
Gas leaked from a chemical plant in Visakhapatnam in the early hours of Thursday and quickly spread to villages in a five kilometre radius, killing at least 11 people and impacting about 1,000, many collapsing to the ground as they tried to escape the toxic vapours.
Hours after the styrene gas leak around 2.30am from the multinational LG Polymers Plant at RR Venkatapuram village, scores of people could be seen lying unconscious on sidewalks, near ditches and on the road, raising fears of a major industrial disaster.