Eleven people have been killed after a gas leak in India, an official said Sunday, in a new industrial accident in the country.

The spill occurred in Jayaspura, an industrial area in Ludhiana, in the northern state of Punjab.

The official, who asked not to be named, stressed that the authorities need to determine the type of gas that leaked or the cause of the leak.
"11 people were killed and four are in hospital. The rescue operation is continuing," he told AFP after the accident.

Industrial gas leaks are common in India. Poor safety standards are usually to blame.

Last August, at least 112 Indian women were hospitalized after a gas leak occurred in a garment factory in the south of the country.

A similar incident occurred in June, in the same area where 200 women lost consciousness after a gas leak, according to NDTV.

In 2020, at least five people died and hundreds were hospitalized after a gas leak at a chemical plant in Visakhapatnam, an industrial port city in the same state.

In 1984, 40 tons of gas leaked from an insecticide factory in Bhopal (center), killing 3,500 people, most of them residents of shanty towns around the facility, in one of the worst industrial accidents in history.