36 fall ill due to gas leak in China: Report

Beijing, Aug 10: Buried canisters of toxic gas believed to have been left by Japan's wartime army were broken open by construction workers in China's northeast, sickening 36 people, according to news agencies.
Twenty-nine people were hospitalised after the gas leak on Monday in the city of Qiqihar, Xinhua said. The area is about 1,100 km northeast of Beijing.


Japan is believed to have abandoned about 700,000 chemical weapons loaded with mustard gas and other poisons in China's northeast after its 13-year occupation of the region ended in 1945.


Farmers, construction workers and others periodically are injured or killed by leaking weapons. Lawyers for Chinese plaintiffs who have sued the Japanese government say the weapons have caused some 2,000 deaths since the end of the war.

The latest incident occurred when a building crew unearthed five canisters in Qiqihar, agency said. It said fumes from an oily substance in the canisters caused headaches, burning eyes and other symptoms in people nearby.


New agencies said that unspecified experts had concluded that the canisters were chemical weapons left by the Japanese army.

Japan's use of chemical and biological weapons during its invasion and occupation of China still stirs anger and resentment among many Chinese, who feel Japan has never fully atoned.

The Japanese government has in recent years sent experts to work with Chinese scientists to excavate and destroy some of the weapons, but the location of most is unknown. Bureau Report