Breaking: Serious accident in Hungarian battery factory, 8 people hospitalised

On Easter Sunday evening, several injured people were taken to hospital from the SK Battery battery factory in Komárom after hydrogen cyanide was released into the air.

Pungent smell in Komárom battery factory, 8 people hospitalised

Photo: skonhungary.com/hu/

Several people were taken ill and 8 hospitalised at the battery factory in Komárom, Telex reports. A pungent smell spread and several workers complained of headaches on Sunday evening at SK’s battery factory in Komárom. Workers were evacuated from the factory. According to the emergency services, the firefighters who checked the site found no hazardous substances in the air of the factory that exceeded the limit values.

On Monday morning, several independent sources told Telex that there was a malfunction at the battery factory on Sunday evening.

The NGO Kiállunk Ácsért wrote to Telex: “People are being taken away from the factory by ambulances without sirens, police and emergency services have been deployed, and workers have been evacuated to the parking lot in front of the factory. The air around the factory smells pungent, irritating to the eyes and throat.”

Such incidents are becoming more and more frequent

Sk Innovation Headquarters, Komárom, photo: https://skonhungary.com/about-us/

In a statement sent to Index, opposition party LMP said that “such incidents are becoming more and more frequent around battery manufacturing and processing plants”. In the wake of the accident on Sunday night, the party reiterated its position that “the government’s efforts to build more factories in Hungary that work with hazardous materials is a mistake”.

The LMP is writing to the government to ask “what really happened” and to press charges against an unknown perpetrator to find out whose negligence caused the latest accident at the battery factory.

What is hydrogen cyanide?

Hydrogen cyanide is a colourless, readily evaporating liquid with a pungent, bitterish odour. The vapour that evaporates from this liquid, which is a weak acid, is highly toxic. Hydrogen cyanide is also flammable and explosive when mixed with oxygen.

LMP to file police report over accident at N Hungary battery plant

The opposition LMP-Greens is filing a report with the police over an accident at a battery manufacturing plant in Komarom, in northern Hungary.

Several workers were taken to the hospital on Sunday after hydrogen cyanide had been released into the air at the plant of SK Batteries, LMP said in a statement, citing local news reports.

The disaster management authority’s mobile lab has not shown harmful amounts of dangerous substances in the air, the statement said.

Noting previous incidents, LMP slammed the government’s aim to establish further plants working with dangerous materials in Hungary, insisting that accidents in battery manufacturing and dismantling plants were becoming more frequent.

The party will ask questions of the government in parliament and file a police report against perpetrators unknown, in an effort to uncover those responsible, the statement added.

It will also re-submit proposals to parliament to obligate battery plants to make their monitoring data public, “which [ruling] Fidesz has swept from the table so far”, the statement said.

LMP wished a speedy recovery to those wounded on Sunday.

Read also:

• Shocking: 2000 times the limit value of a carcinogen measured in South Korean factory in Hungary
• Remarkable: Partially Hungarian-built hydrogen train sets Guinness record – PHOTOS, VIDEO

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