Gas leak scare at Mumbai hospital

A serious incident of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) leak from a tanker at the Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai sent the BMC in a tizzy, officials said on Saturday.

The smell of the leak from a tanker with around 10K tonnes gas, was noticed around 12.30 p.m. and all emergency systems were activated, said Mayor Kishori Pednekar.

To begin with 58 patients, including 20 suffering from Covid-19, were immediately shifted to another location in the hospital and have been said to be safe, she said.

Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray who rushed to the spot, said due to the prompt response a potentially major tragedy was averred.

"The situation is under control... The work of controlling the gas leak is underway," he told mediapersons at the site.

Officials said that as per preliminary information, the leakage reportedly occurred owing to malfunction of a valve during the transfer of the gas from the tanker to a storage facility at the hospital.

Senior police, fire brigade, disaster management officials and experts from the HPCL are at the site monitoring the situation closely.