Police have opened an investigation into officials at a chemical plant in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, after 400 liters of hydrochloric acid leaked from the site.
The Ojeong Police Station in Bucheon plans to question plant officials, including a man in his 40s identified only by the surname A, on suspicion of violating the Chemical Substances Control Act and causing injury through professional negligence, police said on the 2nd.
The officials are suspected of spilling 400 liters of hydrochloric acid at about 12:42 p.m. that day while moving containers of the acid with a one-ton truck at a plant in Nae-dong, Ojeong District, injuring seven people nearby. Police believe a container was damaged as the workers secured it to the truck bed with rope.
Firefighters deployed personnel and equipment after the accident and neutralized the spill using sodium bicarbonate, but some residents inhaled hydrochloric acid fumes and reported breathing difficulties. They were taken to hospitals by paramedics and are receiving treatment.
Bucheon city officials measured hydrogen chloride levels around the site at about 2:26 p.m., one hour and 44 minutes after the accident. The readings showed the gas had been fully cleared, and the response was closed.
