Deadly Indian pharmaceutical blast blamed on chemical solvent leak

By Rishika Sadam and Shivam Patel

HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) -An explosion at a pharmaceutical factory in southern India on Wednesday, which killed at least 17 people and injured 36, was due to a chemical solvent leak, according to an internal government report accessed by Reuters on Thursday.

The blast came around noon at the privately-held Escientia Advanced Sciences in Andhra Pradesh, where nearly 400 employees make intermediate chemicals and active ingredients for export to the United States and other Western countries.

The chemical solvent, which was being used in the eight-stage process of manufacturing a pharmaceutical ingredient for export, leaked from the first floor to the floor below.

"The explosion happened due to the heavy solvent vapour cloud at the power panel area in the ground floor," the inquiry report said.

Workers had been trying to plug a chemical leak when an explosion ripped through the unit, Srinivasa Rao Korada, chief financial officer of the Escientia Group, said on Thursday.

"Workers had noticed that leak, they were attending to it, and had almost plugged the leak when this happened," he said, adding it was not clear what triggered the leak.

Local police filed an initial formal report against the company following a complaint from a local government official saying a lack of precautionary measures could have led to the blast.

The incident, one of the worst industrial accidents in recent years in India, came a year after a fire at a pharmaceuticals factory in the same Anakapalli district of the state, which killed two people and injured five.

The company is collaborating with authorities to investigate the reason for the leak, Korada said, adding that smoke and fire had prevented it from investigating immediately.

Officials said they were scanning closed-circuit television footage and questioning the injured to decide if human error was responsible.

The distilled solvent which leaked was identified as Methylene Tertiary Butyl Ether or MTBE, a flammable liquid used as an additive in unleaded gasoline to achieve more efficient burning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says on its website.

An inquiry will be held into the accident, said the state's chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu, adding: "We also hope this will be the last such incident."

($1=83.9330 Indian rupees)

(Writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and David Holmes)