Pictures from the neighborhood show scores of people lying unconscious Rescue official says up to 800 people were taken to hospital for treatment NEW DELHI: About a dozen people lost their lives and more than a hundred are in critical condition after a massive leak of styrene gas at a chemical plant in Visakhapatnam in southeastern Andhra Pradesh state on Thursday morning. About 2:30 a.m. local time, residents of five villages near the South Korean-owned factory started to show symptoms of poisoning. Soon after that, people began to collapse on the streets. Pictures from the neighborhood of the plant, LG Polymers, showed scores of people lying unconscious. “About 1,000-1,500 people have been evacuated, of whom more than 800 were taken to hospital,” National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) chief Satya Narayan Pradhan told reporters. He said that while styrene is a common chemical used in the plastic industry, high exposure to it can be lethal. HIGHLIGHTS LG Polymers plant is owned by South Korean battery maker LG Chemical. It was reopened several days ago, when India relaxed its coronavirus lockdown measures. “When we woke up, the smell of the gas was all around. Standing outside became difficult. The gas entered our homes and caused breathing problems and burning sensation in the lungs,” said Subha Reddy, a resident of Naidu Thota, one of the affected villages. The state minister for industry, M. Goutham Reddy, told Arab News the leakage started when workers were checking a gas storage tank. “Only a thorough investigation will reveal what exactly happened,” he said. According to initial reports, a malfunction in the temperature controls led to a sharp increase in the pressure in the gas tank and the gas escaped through the safety valve. The plant was reopened several days ago when India relaxed its coronavirus lockdown measures, Srijana Gummalla, commissioner at the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, told journalists. South Korean battery maker LG Chemical, the owner of the facility, said in a statement that it is “looking into the exact damages, cause of the death and details of the incident.”