Witnesses said thousands of people had been taken to hospitals gasping for breath, many frothing at the mouth, their eyes inflamed. The streets were littered with the corpses of dogs, cats, water buffalo, cows and birds killed by the gas, methyl isocyanate, which is widely used in the preparation of insecticides. Doctors Are Rushed to City Doctors from neighboring towns and the Indian Army were rushed to the city of 900,000, where hospitals were said to be overflowing with the injured. Most of the victims were children and old people who were overwhelmed by the gas and suffocated, Indian press reports said. Even in small amounts, the gas produces heavy discharge from the eyes and is extremely irritating to the skin and internal organs.
Exposure can apparently lead to enough fluid accumulation to cause drowning.
We don't know what went wrong,'' the spokesman said. The managing director of Union Carbide in India, Y. P. Gokhale, was quoted as saying that the incident occurred when a tank valve apparently malfunctioned after an increase in pressure, allowing the gas to escape into the air in a 40-minute period early today. It was not clear why the pressure had risen or how the leak was stopped. Mr. Kushoo, the environmental official, said it was still unclear whether it would be necessary to evacuate parts of Bhopal. The poison gas spread through about 25 square miles of Bhopal, an area said to be populated largely by poor families.