Gas leak sends 164 to hospital in northwest China

BEIJING, July 10 (Reuters) Toxic chlorine gas leaking from a rusting pipe in northwest China has put 164 people in hospital, Xinhua news agency said today.

The accident happened yesterday at a chemical factory in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, bordering Inner Mongolia.

''Police received calls late Sunday night about people poisoned in a factory in Xixia district, where 210,000 residents live,'' the agency said.

Gas leaks are not uncommon in China. In March, a leak at a gas well in southwest China prompted the emergency evacuation of 15,000 people.

In December 2003, in one of China's worst industrial accidents, 243 people died when a leak in the same area sent out a cloud of toxic gas that killed residents in their sleep.

REUTERS KD KN1534