A student hospitalised (Source: AP) Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – As many as 111 schools inPasir Gudang, in the southern Johor state of Malaysia, have been closed untilfurther notice following the orders of Education Minister Maszlee Malik onMarch 13.
The order was made after more than 200 students and teacherswere hospitalised due to poisoning that local authorities attributed to a toxicchemical leak last week.
Maszlee said the action was based on the current situation and informationreceived from the State Disaster Management Committee.
Earlier the same day, the minister posted on Facebook that the situation wasbecoming worse.
He said that the number of people receiving treatment hadrisen from 35 last week to 207. As of March 11, 44 people, including 33students, were still being kept in the hospital.
Local authorities held that the reason behind the chemical poisoningwas exposure to toxic fumes from chemical waste dumped into Sungai Kim Kim inPasir Gudang in Johor.
According to rescue force of Johor, victims, aged from 7-40, are students andstaff of two affected schools. Earlier, more than 1,000 people, mostly schoolstudents, were evacuated to safe sites after authorities received an urgentphone call reporting a strange smell that the caller thought to be chemicalsaround the two schools in Pasir Gudang.
Early this week, Malaysian authorities seized three suspectsdisposing toxic chemicals into the river, one of them will be taken to thecourt soon. If found guilty, the suspect could be sentenced to five years inprison.–VNA
VNA
