A chlorine gas explosion on Monday killed 12 people and injured more than 250, authorities said, when a tank that fell from a crane released a poisonous yellow cloud at Jordan’s Port of Aqaba.
Footage on al-Mamlaka TV showed the large cylinder, said to have been carrying about 30 tonnes of gas, plunging from a crane on a moored vessel and violently releasing the chlorine gas cloud.
The force of the explosion sent a truck rolling down the dock, while workers at the port ran for their lives.
Photo: Reuters
“At exactly 15:15 this afternoon, a chlorine gas leak occurred in the Port of Aqaba as a result of the fall and explosion of a tank containing this substance,” the Jordanian National Center for Security and Crisis Management said in a statement.
The death toll rose to 12 with 260 injured — Jordanians and foreigners, it said, adding that almost half of the injured were being treated in hospitals.
Nearby areas were evacuated and residents were told to stay indoors as emergency responders established a 500m cordon around the site of the incident, the center said.
The southern beach of Aqaba, a Red Sea resort area, was also evacuated, officials said.
Aqaba Region Ports Authority deputy head Haj Hassan told al-Mamlaka that an “iron rope carrying a container containing a toxic substance broke,” leading to the fall and leak.
The channel also cited the former head of the company that operates the port, Mohammed al-Mubaidin, as saying that a vessel had been waiting to load almost 20 containers of liquefied gas “containing a very high percentage of chlorine.”
He added that the gas is heavy and “it is not easy for its gas clouds to move ... as it concentrates in one area and is affected by wind movement.”
The fallen tank, punctured and stained yellow from where the gas burst out, came to rest on the dock directly beside the Forest 6 vessel.
Ship-tracking Web sites said the deck cargo ship was built only this year and sails under a Hong Kong flag.
Media showed civil defense force members, some dressed in hazmat suits, as well as medics, rushing to the scene clad in masks.
The leak was unlikely to reach Israel, an Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection spokeswoman said, adding that a northerly wind was blowing.
The center said authorities were “working to clear the scene of the accident from the effects of the leak, in preparation for the return of normal life.”
Trucks were seen lined in a row carrying similar containers at the time the accident occurred.
Jordanian Prime Minister Bishr Khasawneh and Minister of the Interior Mazen al-Faraya headed to the scene, media reports said.
As night fell dozens of people had gathered outside the emergency department of one Aqaba hospital.
Aqaba Health Affairs Director Jamal Obeidat said that hospitals in the area were full and “cannot receive more cases.”
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