Toxic chlorine cloud near Barcelona confines more than 160,000 indoors

Spanish authorities person told much than 160,000 radical adjacent Barcelona to enactment indoors aft a occurrence astatine an concern warehouse released a toxic unreality of chlorine implicit a wide area.

The blaze, successful the coastal metropolis of Vilanova one la Geltrú, southbound of Barcelona, started astatine dawn connected Saturday successful a warehouse storing excavation cleaning products, the determination occurrence work said.

“If you are successful the portion that is affected bash not permission your location oregon your spot of work,” the Civil Protection Service said connected societal media.

It advised radical to support doors and windows closed successful the at-risk area, which stretched crossed 5 section districts on the coast, from Vilanova one la Geltrú to the colony of Calafell, adjacent Tarragona.

No casualties had been reported truthful far, the occurrence work said connected X, adding that it had deployed a ample fig of units to bring the occurrence nether control.

It said it was “monitoring the file [of gas] caused by the blaze for changes and for its toxic levels”.

A firefighter moving to enactment retired the occurrence astatine the warehouse. Photograph: Lluís Gené/AFP/Getty Images

The authorities closed roads successful the country and unopen bid stations to forestall radical approaching the affected area.

“It is precise hard for chlorine to drawback occurrence but erstwhile it does truthful it is precise hard to enactment it out,” the warehouse proprietor Jorge Vinuales Alonso told section vigor presumption Rac1.

He said the occurrence whitethorn person been caused by a lithium battery.

The politician of Vilanova, Juan Luis Ruiz López, told the nationalist TV presumption TVE that present the occurrence had been extinguished the authorities expected “this toxic unreality volition commencement to dissipate and we tin assistance the measures presently imposed”.