AMMAN, June 27 (Xinhua) — Twelve people were killed and 251 others injured on Monday when chemical gas leaked from a container in Jordan’s Aqaba port, Jordanian state television reported.
According to state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka, a large field hospital has been opened in Aqaba to treat those injured in the toxic gas leak as hospitals in the Red Sea port city reached full capacity, as Jamal Obeidat, the director of Aqaba’s health department, said the injured were in moderate to serious medical condition and asked Aqaba residents to stay at home, warning that the danger of toxic gas leaks was always present.
For his part, Kamal Kreisha, receptionist at Prince Hashem bin Abdullah military hospital in Aqaba, said that all hospital staff were working hard to manage the flow of wounded. “All the hospitals in Aqaba are full… We have enough medical equipment and oxygen supplies in the hospitals, but there is panic and the relatives of the injured are flocking to the hospitals,” he said. – he told Xinhua.
Samer Zbeideh, an Aqaba resident who works as a teacher, told Xinhua that the situation was frightening. “I am staying at home with my wife and two daughters. We have closed the windows and doors and we are watching the news… We hope this will be resolved very soon. This is a tragic incident,” he said. -he says.
Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh arrived in Aqaba on Monday evening to follow the frontline efforts to deal with the aftermath of a gas tank explosion, the official Petra news agency reported, adding that the leader government expressed its deepest condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.
According to a statement from the Prime Minister, Mr Khasawneh has tasked Interior Minister Mazen Faraya to lead a team to investigate the incident. End
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