- August 9, 2023
29, Including Children, Hospitalised after Gas Leak Pakistan’s Karachi – News18
Karachi Gas Leak: At least 29 people were hospitalised after a gas leak was reported in Karachi’s West Wharf area in Pakistan. (Image: Shutterstock)
Gas leaks in Pakistan are becoming a common occurrence. Some officials have attributed the gas leaks to the frequent load shedding.
At least 29 people, mostly women and children, fell unconscious and were hospitalised after leakage of ammonia gas in a factory in Karachi on Tuesday. The incident occurred in the evening when ammonia gas started emitting from a leaked pipe at a private seafood company in Karachi’s West Wharf area, the Dawn said in its report.
The gas soon engulfed the neighbourhood and 29 women and children immediately fell ill and unconscious after inhaling it. 14 women were taken to Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital in Karachi and 15 other women and children were taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment.
The company’s engineers were taken to the factory who then repaired the pipe and plugged the leakage. Police officials from Karachi’s Docks area dispelled rumours that a cylinder explosion occurred at the factory and said it was a gas leak.
The police have not made any arrests or detentions.
Pakistan has witnessed several gas leak incidents this year across the country. In Rawalpindi, at least 16 incidents of gas leakage were reported in a month leading to the deaths of six people of which four were children.
In the beginning of this year, 16 people, including children, have died due to gas leakage incidents in Quetta region of the country. A gas leakage triggered an explosion in the Killi Badezai area in Quetta killing four children of a family inside a mud-walled house.
Pakistani officials have accepted that gas leak incidents continue to rise across the country. The officials attributed the gas leaks to widespread gas load-shedding and low pressure.
A leakage of the ammonia gas was reported at the Najma ice factory in Mehran Town last month in Korangi. The gas leak affected many people and two people had to be hospitalised after they were exposed to the gas.
In March, six were killed and five were hospitalised after a poisonous gas leak inside a coal mine in Pakistan’s Balochistan. The rescue workers said that the workers died after the mine was filled with poisonous gas.
