10,000 residents evacuated from Chinese city after liquid ammonia leak at fertiliser plant

More than 10,000 residents were evacuated from a suburb on the outskirts of a city in Sichuan province on Monday night after liquid ammonia leaked from a fertiliser plant, the West China City Daily reported.

Residents were told by the local government to evacuate the Dingshui district, in the city of Nanchong, at about 10.30pm after the toxic gas started to leak from a pipe at the Chuanlong Chemical Company, the newspaper said.

Many of the people left the area on foot and also on motorcycles and in cars, resulting in big traffic jams on roads leading from Dingshui.

At least one middle-aged man passed out after inhaling the toxic gas while he was only about 100 metres from the plant, a fireman told the newspaper.

The man was taken to hospital, but the newspaper report did not give details about his condition or if other people had also been taken ill because of the leakage.

Local authorities said they had informed residents to evacuate the area immediately after the leak was discovered. They have also launched an investigation into the accident.

The fireman said emergency workers had seen white gases spewing out of the pipe, the newspaper reported.

The leakage was halted by Tuesday morning, but the air near the plant continued to smell strongly of ammonia, the West China City Daily reported.

Ammonia is a highly toxic gas with a pungent smell. Exposure to high levels of the gas can lead to death as the result of swelling in the throat or chemical burns to lungs.

Some residents in the area have complained that the fertiliser plant should not have been built in such a densely populated area.