Six people were killed and over 100 hospitalised due to ammonia gas leak from a tanker on the outskirts of the industrial town in Punjab, police said on Saturday. The incident occurred near Doraha town on the Delhi-ludhiana highway late Friday. Police said a tanker got stuck under a bridge owing to its low height. Its valve got damaged, resulting in the leak. They said around 100 people have been admitted to various hospitals.
Police have shifted the locals from the affected area to safer places as a precautionary measure. Many of them have reported uneasiness in breathing and some of them fainted. The police have registered a case against the driver. Punjab Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani told reporters in Chandigarh that he came to know about the incident at 1.30 a.m.
“Top Government functionaries have been directed to take all possible measures to rescue the survivors and provide them adequate medication,” he said. Official sources said the impact of the gas leak was felt in more than two kilometers of the area. “Over 1,000 people residing in the vicinity of the accident scene were directly affected,” said an official. Twenty patients, mostly complaining of eye irritation and nausea, were admitted to the Civil Hospital in ludhiana.