Jordan: 4 Asian immigrants among those killed by toxic gas leak in Aqaba

Most were being treated for the effects of breathing chlorine gas, a common cleaning agent that also has other industrial uses and can be used as a chemical weapons agent.

“All the injured suffer from similar symptoms, shortness of breath, strong cough and vertigo,” said Dr. Rouba Aaamawi of the Islamic Hospital of Aqaba, who was treating 70 people, some on ventilators.

Assadallah Al Jazi, a 25-year-old fertilizer company employee, was among the injured.

“We didn’t hear any explosions. We just smelled something noxious and saw the yellow smoke, then there were people drowning,” she said.

The port began to return to normal on Tuesday, with all docks reopening except for Pier Four, where more security checks will take place, Interior Minister General Mazen Al Faraya said.

“The situation in Aqaba is now under control,” Prime Minister Bisher Al Khasawneh said after visiting the port on Monday night.

The chlorine escaped when the cable snapped on a crane loading a liquefied gas tank onto a ship, crashing it to the ground at the dock.

The force of the fall punctured the pressurized container, enveloping the freighter Forest 6 in a blanket of bright yellow gas, CCTV footage from the port showed.

The fallen white tank, punctured and stained yellow where the gas came out, was pulled up to the dock directly next to the Forest 6 ship. Ship tracking websites say the deck cargo ship was built only this year and sails under a Hong Kong flag.

On Tuesday, civil defense forces were seen inspecting the spill scene, some dressed in hazmat suits.

The director of the port’s grain silos, Imad Tarawneh, said they will remain closed for two days while health inspectors check for contamination of stocks.

He said there would be no impact on port traffic as there are currently no grain carriers at the dock.

“The silos are made of concrete and are hermetically sealed but, despite that, all necessary precautions are being taken and all loading and unloading operations have been stopped,” he said.

The director of the Aqaba Ports Operation and Management Company, Khaled Maayta, said the grain silos were only 600 meters (yards) from the site of Monday’s spill.

Aqaba’s health director, Jamal Obeidat, said the city’s hospitals were full and “cannot receive any more cases.”

“The injured are in medium to critical condition,” he added.

As Jordanian hospitals struggled to cope with the toll, neighboring Saudi Arabia put the general hospital in the border town of Haql on alert to help treat the wounded.

Civil defense spokesman Amer Al Sartawy said more than 2,700 security and emergency personnel were deployed to the scene, with some 45 of them wounded.

Nearby Aqaba South Beach, which is popular with tourists, was evacuated after Monday’s crash, as were adjacent residential areas, but residents were later told they could return home.

Aqaba tourism department official Nidal Al Majali said lack of wind on Monday helped prevent the gas cloud from spreading outside the port.

Aqaba is Jordan’s only maritime gateway and a transit point for most of its imports and exports.

It occupies a narrow stretch of Red Sea coastline between the Israeli and Saudi borders and is just 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Israeli port and resort town of Eilat.

A spokeswoman for the Israel Environmental Protection Agency said there was no health risk in Eilat as the prevailing winds were blowing in the other direction.

The Israeli Defense Ministry expressed condolences and offered help.

Chlorine has a variety of industrial uses and is famous for its use as a chemical weapons agent in World War I. It attacks the respiratory system, the skin and the eyes.