LAHORE: Badami Bagh police claimed on Tuesday to have arrested four owners of a cold storage unit near Lunda Phatak, where ammonia gas leakage affected as many as 171 residents of the area, besides its workers, late on Monday.

Rescue 1122 teams rushed the affected people, many of them unconscious, to various hospitals. As many as 107 were shifted to the Mayo Hospital, 40 to Nawaz Sharif Yakki Gate Hospital and 15 of them were taken to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

According to the hospitals’ sources, most of such patients were discharged on Tuesday and condition of at least one of them was stated to be serious.

Mayo Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Amjad Shahzad told Dawn the hospital had admitted 107 patients affected by the gas and of them 59 were male, 42 female and six children. All the patients had been discharged except six who were now in stable condition, he added.

District administration officials reached the spot and after sealing the factory lodged a case against its owners -- Salahuddin, Asim, Adnan Muhiyuddin and Nauman Muhiyuddin. Police later arrested them.

Following the incident, area residents gathered outside the factory and protested against the district administration and owners, demanding the unit should be shut down permanently.

The protesters said similar incidents of small gas leakages had been occurring at the unit but no action was taken against its owners.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015