Chennai: Seven
women workers were killed and dozens more hospitalised after a major ammonia
gas leak at a seafood processing and export unit in Tamil Nadu's Tiruvallur
district, Indian media reports said on Sunday.
The
leak occurred at a private seafood processing facility in Kannigaipair village,
where around 120 migrant workers, many of them women from Assam, Odisha, and
Jharkhand, were staying on the premises. Authorities said 67 workers were
affected by the gas leak, with 46 admitted to one hospital and 21 to another.
Nine critically ill patients were later transferred to Government Stanley
Medical College Hospital in Chennai.
Doctors
said most of the affected workers were young women in their early twenties. A
senior physician at a private hospital said 15 to 16 patients had to be
intubated, with 11 placed on ventilator support. Officials said a suspected
valve failure may have triggered the leak, though the exact cause remains under
investigation.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay ordered the formation of a three-member inquiry committee, which has been asked to submit an interim report within 24 hours and a final report within three days. Police have registered a case and launched an investigation.
