WORLD : Hundreds Flee Toxic Gas in Calcutta
CALCUTTA, India — Toxic gas today spewed out of an engineering factory in the eastern port of Calcutta and injured more than 100 residents of a neighboring shanty colony, police said.
Police said hundreds of impoverished slum residents rushed from their homes gasping for air and ran from the congested Malipanchghara area on the outskirts of the city.
Ammonia gas, used for welding and other jobs at the engineering firm, leaked from a cylinder when workers on the overnight shift were cutting a steel sheet.
Police said masked firefighters carried the leaking cylinder to a nearby water tank, where it was immersed and rendered harmless.
Firefighters and police evacuated residents from the slum and transported some of the injured to Howrah General Hospital, where all but one were treated and released.
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