Thirty people were injured in a chemical leak in the Perm region Friday, and 27 of them were hospitalized, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

A chlorine leak occurred at the Soda-Chlorate chemical plant around 6:30 a.m. in the city of Berezniki, in central Russia, about 1,500 kilometers east of Moscow, the ministry said in comments carried by Interfax.

No fatalities were reported, but doctors have advised people who were at the scene to seek medical attention.

Preliminary reports say the leak was caused by a technical malfunction stemming from a frozen valve. This is the second such incident in the area in the past six months.

(MT)