Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LIUCKNOW: About 300 students fell ill upon inhaling a noxious gas emanating from a sugar mill next door in Shamli district in western Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday

According to the local police, the students of Saraswati Shishu Mandir Public School complained of uneasiness, vomiting, nausea, itching and breathlessness in the afternoon and dozens of them fell unconscious.

The management rushed the students to the district hospital in Shamli. The children with graver symptoms were referred to hospitals in Muzaffarnagar and Meerut.

Amidst chaos, medical teams were rushed to the school to attend to affected students. Panic-stricken parents rushed to the school and many of them took their children to private nursing homes for immediate medical attention.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the Saharanpur divisional commissioner to conduct a probe into the incident and fix the responsibility The UP Pollution Control Board is investigating what chemical was discharged from the sugar mill.

"We have come to know that similar incidents had taken place in the past. A probe is on and strict action will be taken against those responsible," ADG, Meerut zone, Prashant Kumar said.

A local resident said leakage of gas from the mill was a regular occurrence and accused the district administration of ignoring their complaints in the past. They alleged that sugar mill employees used to discharge chemicals in waste dumps leading to emission of harmful gas inhaling which children took ill, with some of them falling unconscious.

The district administration has sealed the sugar mill. Its owner was absconding, police said.

(With PTI inputs)