Toxic chlorine cloud forces 160,000 people indoors in major city

Smoke billowing from a building storing pool cleaning products, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, south of Barcelona (Picture: AFP)

A toxic chlorine cloud cloaking parts of Spain has forced 160,000 people to seek refuge indoors.

Authorities warned that a fire at an industrial property storing pool cleaning products has released the gas over a wide area south of Barcelona.

The incident happened in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, around 26 miles from the cosmopolitan capital of Spain’s Catalonia region.

Flames – likely caused by a lithium battery – took hold of the building in the early hours of this morning, the regional fire service said.

‘If you are in the zone that is affected do not leave your home or your place of work,’ the Civil Protection service said on social media.

As the toxic cloud expands, the at-risk area is stretches across at least five municipalities from Vilanova i la Geltru to the village of Calafell, near the city of Tarragona.

‘No casualties’ had been reported, the fire service said on X, adding that a large number of units deployed to the scene had brought the flames under control.

It said it is ‘monitoring the column (of gas) caused by the fire for changes and for its toxic levels’.

Owner of the industrial property, Jorge Vinuales Alonso, told local radio station Rac1: ‘It is very difficult for chlorine to catch fire but when it does so it is very hard to put it out.’

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