Ammonia gas leakage triggers panic in Haryana’s Shahbad, many hospitalised

Tribune News Service
Kurukshetra, February 19

An ammonia gas leak at a private cold storage on Shahabad-Nalvi road led to over 60 people falling ill and being taken to a hospital here late on Tuesday night.

The leak was at a cold storage used to store potato near a residential colony Bazigar near Nalvi Bridge in Shahabad. Some 250 people had to be evacuated to safer places. The leak was finally plugged at around 10:30 pm.

Rupinder Saini, a Senior Medical Office at CHC Shahabad, said some 62 patients came in 6 am with complaints of burning eyes and breathing difficulties.

“Of those, 22 were admitted of which three were referred to LNJP Kurukshetra. Forty were OPD patients. All those admitted here have been discharged while those referred to LNJP are also stable,” he said, adding that a team of doctors had visited the affected area on Wednesday morning.

Deputy Superintendent of Police said those affected by the leak were “fine now”.

“We have not received any complaint so far.”

A fireman spoke to The Tribune about the difficulties firemen faced at the scene.

“Around 8:48 pm we got the information about the gas leakage. It was hard to enter the cold storage premises due to gas leakage. Several motorcycles were lying on the road. It took nearly an hour-and-a-half to control the situation. A driver and a fireman also felt dizzy during the operation but got timely medical attention,” he said. 

Shahabad Member of Legislative Assembly Ram Karan Kala said the fire department needed large amounts of water to control the leak.

 “The situation was very bad. Large quantities of water were used to control the situation. The valve was turned off and the situation was controlled,” he said.

Those who had been evacuated from the residential colony returned to their homes on Tuesday morning.

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