WASHINGTON, Oct 6: Some 17,000 people were asked to evacuate and 18 were injured late on Thursday after an explosion at a North Carolina chemical plant, a city official said.
The blast occurred around 10pm on Thursday (0200 GMT on Friday) at an industrials facility in Apex, 24kms from the state capital, Raleigh, said Sharon Brown, Wake County, North Carolina’s public affairs director.
Brown said 600 people had sought refuge in emergency shelters following the explosion, which sparked a massive fire.
“It is still burning,” she said, adding that ‘it could take days’ to contain the blaze.
She noted that most of those wounded were police officers and fire-fighters.
Although the chemical that sparked the explosion has not yet been identified, since the plant produces various chemicals, Brown said officials ‘believe it might be chlorine gas’.—AFP
