A resident of Novomoskovsk filmed the foam outside the plant walls.
Huge mounds of white foam reaching six meters high blanketed a chemical plant in the Tula region when thousands of liters of shower gel spilled into the sewer system.
The emergency services in the town of Novomoskovsk first received reports from the Azot chemical plant's control room at 7:53 a.m. Wednesday that a large pile of foam had reached the plant's pollution control facility. A response team of local civil defense and emergencies officials was dispatched to the site, RIA Novosti reported.
A YouTube video shows the walls of the plant surrounded by fluffy white clouds of foam reaching six meters high in some places, giving a surreal feeling to an otherwise bleak industrial landscape.
The cosmetics company Aerosol Novomoskovsk, which produces shower gel at the plant, said that a faulty valve in the storage system for the plant's finished product caused seven cubic meters of the semi-liquid to run into the local sewer system.
Authorities said the valve malfunction was fixed by 8:30 a.m. They said the spilled shower gel did not pose a threat to the local population.
