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Explosion
Toxic orange cloud covers towns near Barcelona after chemical blast
Thousands of people were forced to stay indoors until the cloud had dissipated.
A CHEMICAL ACCIDENT at a factory in Spain today injured three people and cloaked large swathes of the region in an orange chemical cloud.
Over 60,000 people were forced to stay indoors before it disappeared.
Chemical explosion
The “explosion or chemical reaction” happened when products being “loaded or unloaded” at a factory owned by Simar at an industrial zone in the northeastern town of Igualda became mixed, a spokeswoman for Catalonia’s firefighters said.
Local officials ordered around 64,500 people in Igualda, about 70 kilometres northwest of Barcelona, and four other towns to remain indoors with their windows shut.
About 60 firefighters wearing protective clothing spread out across the region to order local residents to return home.
The general warning was lifted about an hour later but maintained for another three hours for pregnant women, children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems.
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