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Chemical Leak at LG Plant in India Kills 11, Sickens 1,000

Associated Press

   HYDERABAD, INDIA - A gas leak at a chemical factory owned by a South
   Korean company in southern India early Thursday left at least 11 people
   dead and about 1,000 struggling to breathe.

   The chemical styrene, used to make plastic and rubber, leaked from the
   LG Polymers plant in the city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh state
   while workers were preparing to restart the facility after a
   coronavirus lockdown was eased, officials said.

   Videos and photos from the area showed dozens of people, including
   women and children, lying unconscious in the streets, arms open wide
   with white froth trailing from their mouths. The scene evoked bitter
   memories of a major industrial disaster in 1984 that left at least
   4,000 people dead and 500,000 injured, according to government figures,
   when methyl isocyanate leaked from a Union Carbide India pesticide
   plant in Bhopal in central India.

   Hundreds of people fled from Thursday's gas leak, some on motorbikes
   and others carried in open trucks. Some who couldn't find vehicles
   raced away barefooted, many with small children slung across their
   shoulders.

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