By 5 p.m. Wednesday, the death toll climbed to 27 in a liquefied chlorine leakage caused by a truck collision Tuesday in Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province, local sources said, adding that 285 people poisoned by the gas are still being hospitalized.

A tank truck carrying 35 tons of liquefied chlorine ran out of control after one of its tires exploded suddenly, ramming into a cargo truck at about 7:00 p.m. Tuesday on the Huai'an section of the Beijing-Shanghai expressway. Both trucks turned over, killing one of the two drivers.

Chlorine leaking from the tank spread over several nearby villages, poisoning more than 300 villagers. By press time, nearly10,000 villagers had been evacuated while rescuers tried to prevent the chlorine left inside the tank truck from leaking.

A rescue team, headed by a deputy governor of the province, rushed to the scene for direction. A reporting panel was also established to investigate the accident and deal with the aftermath, the sources said.

Source: Xinhua