Three Indians killed in chemical leak at Singapore plant

By Nirmala George, Singapore, March 1 : Three Indian workers were killed and two others badly injured in a toxic spill at a chemical plant in Singapore, officials said Sunday.

The workers suffered severe burns Friday when nitric acid leaked from a heat exchange unit of the Chemic Industries plant located in Tuas, an industrial zone in the southwest of Singapore.

Officials said two workers were killed instantaneously when the leak occurred, while another died in the Singapore General Hospital late Saturday.

The injured workers were still in hospital. One of them was stated to be in critical condition with over 70 percent burns.

All work at the chemical plant has been stopped while authorities investigate the cause of the leak.

An employee of Chemic Industries refused to divulge any details about the incident or how the leak occurred. However, the three men who died were described by other employees of Chemic Industries as young married men whose families were in India.

Singapore has around 200,000 Indian industrial workers, most of whom are employed as skilled or unskilled labour in the marine engineering and construction industry.