| AN
ecological disaster was unfolding yesterday after Nato
bombed a combined petrochemicals, fertiliser and
refinery complex on the banks of the Danube in the
northern outskirts of Belgrade.
A series of detonations that shook the whole city
early yesterday sent a toxic cloud of smoke and gas
hundreds of feet into the night sky. In the dawn the
choking cloud could be seen spreading over the entire
northern skyline.
Among the cocktail of chemicals billowing over
hundreds of thousands of homes were the toxic gas
phosgene, chlorine and hydrochloric acid. Workers at the
industrial complex in Pancevo panicked and decided to
release tons of ethylene dichloride, a carcinogen, into
the Danube, rather than risk seeing it blown up.
At least three missile strikes left large areas of
the plant crippled and oil and petrol from the damaged
refinery area flowed into the river, forming slicks up
to 12 miles long. Temperatures in the collapsing plant
were said to have risen to more than 1,000C. Asked about
the hazard from chemical smoke, Nato said there was
"a lot more smoke coming from burning villages in
Kosovo".
Belgrade scientists told people to stay indoors and
to avoid any fish caught in the Danube. They said
pollution would spread downstream to Romania and
Bulgaria and then into the Black Sea.
At least 50 residents of Pancevo were reported
suffering from poisoning and the Health Ministry was
struggling to find gas masks to distribute in the
surrounding areas. residents were told to breathe
through scarves soaked in sodium bicarbonate as a
precaution against showers of nitric acid.
Thirteen hours after the first explosions, the
Yugoslav Army took journalists to Pancevo just as a
thunderstorm broke over the complex.
As the director tried to hold a press conference in
the fertiliser plant's headquarters offices, panes of
glass and other fixtures loosened by the earlier
explosions began falling from the building. The driving
rain and gusts of wind only increased the smoke and
brought the toxic gases down from the higher levels of
the atmosphere. "This plant is 37 years old and
this is our worst nightmare," said Miralem Dzindo.
" By taking away our fertiliser they stop us
growing food, and then they try to poison us as
well." He rejected journalists' questions about
chemical weapons, saying that the plant was strictly
non-military.
Mr Dzindo said an airstrike three nights ago had
grazed a tank containing 20,000 tons of liquid ammonia.
If that had gone up in flames, he said, much of Belgrade
would have been poisoned. Against the roar of thunder
and the crackle of the burning oil refinery, the Serbian
Ecology Minister, Dragoljub Jelovic, accused Nato of
trying to destroy the whole Yugoslav environment. He
said the pollution in the Danube and in the atmosphere
over Belgrade "knows no frontiers" and he
warned neighbouring countries that the poison clouds
could soon be with them.
A westerly wind had taken the worst of the gases away
from Belgrade, he said, but he predicted that they could
soon reach Romania.
Disaster will be avoided, as long as the cloud
remains several hundred feet high (Dr Thomas Stuttaford
writes). However, if the wind changes, and if it rains
so that the gases are dissolved in solutions which can
be deposited and inhaled, the old, very young and those
with chest diseases might suffer.
The usual advice is to keep indoors with the windows
shut, wearing a mask, and after the danger has passed to
wash all clothes that were being worn, and to flush down
any contaminated person's skin with soapy water.
Next page: Brown
orders audit of war costs
Arts (Mon - Fri)
| Books
(Sat) (Thu)
| British News
| Business |
Court page |
Features (Mon -
Fri) | Go
(Sat) | Metro
(Sat) | Obituaries | Opinion | Sport | Travel
(Sat) (Thu)
| Vision
(Sat) | Interface
(Wed) | Weather | Weekend
(Sat) | Weekend
Money (Sat) | World News
| 
