Local authorities said on Wednesday that 39 people who were poisoned in a toxic chemical leak earlier this week in Wuhai City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have left the hospital.

Seven seriously injured workers left the hospital at 4 p.m. on Tuesday after treatment and 32 others left the hospital on Monday, the day of the incident, according to an official at the regional work safety administration bureau.

The workers were poisoned by chlorine, a poisonous yellow-green gas with a pungent irritating odor, at around 1 a.m. on Monday when they were working at the Wuhai Municipal Chemical Co. Ltd.

Fire fighters had to evacuate 218 workers and nearby residents.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2008)