More than 200 people fell ill Wednesday in an ammonia gas leak at a pharmaceutical plant in northern China, state media reported.
The leak occurred at 9:40 am (0140 GMT) when a tanker truck was unloading 30 tonnes of liquid ammonia at the plant in Chifeng city, in Inner Mongolia, the Xinhua news agency said, citing the local district government.
Twenty-one people were hospitalised and 181 others were under observation, it said.
Initial investigations suggested that the leak was caused by workers failing to operate the equipment properly and worn pipes on the truck, the report said.
The leak has been sealed but people within two kilometres (1.2 miles) downwind of the leak were evacuated as a precaution, it said.
Authorities were testing the city's water supply for potential ammonia contamination, the report said.
Separately, nearly 90 people in Chifeng were still in hospital Tuesday after more than 4,300 were sickened due to tap water contamination in the city during heavy rainfall in late July, according to Chinese media reports.
China has a dismal work safety record, with thousands of people dying every year in mines, factories and on construction sites.
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