News In Brief

Union Carbide officials held after fatal gas leak in India

Police arrested four officials of a Union Carbide insecticide plant in Bhopal , capital of Madhya Pradesh State, 370 miles south of New Delhi, in connection with a leak of poisonous cyanide gas Sunday night. As of midday Monday, at least 304 people had died and 10,000 more left ill, some hospitalized.

The plant's managing director was quoted by United News of India as saying the gas, methyl isocyanate, leaked when a valve on an underground storage tank broke under rising pressure inside. It spread to an area of about 25 square miles.