Hundreds of pigs and dozens of dogs died overnight in central China's Henan Province, apparently victims of a chemical gas leak from an under-fire factory after local authorities excluded the possibility of H7N9 infection, local media reported.

Pigs, dogs perish overnight.[Photo/bbs.163.com]

A total of 238 pigs and 89 dogs have been confirmed dead after local villagers found the carcasses and reported the deaths on Monday morning, a government official in Shanhua Town in Yanshi City said.

Authorities said the animals had not died due to the current bird flu outbreak, dubbed H7N9 infection, and the carcasses have been spread on lime and buried deep.

Meanwhile, a further probe into the widely-panned medical product manufacturing factory is ongoing after villagers claimed to have smelled "extremely strong odor," Dahe Daily reported.

"We always smell chemical odor but the smell was extremely putrid this morning," a villager said on Monday. Residents are blaming the factory for the death of the animals.

Villagers said the factory has been emitting foul odor for more than a dozen years, and has never stopped production despite wide protests. Instead, its emissions of waste gas have increased and sickened villagers in recent years. The factory has also dumped waste water and polluted a local river.

"I feel dizzy and suffer sore throat when I take in the odor. Some people, aged between 30 and 50, who died in recent years, were mostly diagnosed with cancer," a villager said.

The culprit Luoyang Jinfu Chemical Factory has not commented so far.

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