There was panic in sone areas of Mumbai city after many residents in reported an unknown odour on Thursday late evening, prompting rumours of a gas leak from Rashtriya Chemical Fertilizers (RCF) plant in the Chembur suburb. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said late Thursday that the odour was reported from Powai, Chembur, Mankhurd, Govandi, Chandivali, Andheri and Ghatkopar areas. A police official said no injuries were reported.
However, the mystery deepened after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) tweeted that there's was no leakage from Chembur's RCF plant. BMC added that a total of 29 complaints have been received and efforts to trace the origin of the gas leak was underway.
Nine fire engines were send at various places to find out the source of leakage, the official said. A BMC official said, "In order to trace the origin of the reported gas leak, we deployed fire engines at Deonar, Mankhurd, Chembur, Vikhroli, Dindoshi, Vile Parle, Kanivali and Dahisar areas." Four mergency vans of MGL were also mobilised, the official said.
On Friday morning, Mumbaikars still did not have any clue to the reason behind the odour and the suspicion of gas leak. Many took to social media to comment about the whole incident with emotions ranging from shock to humor.
Many people took to Twitter to air their complaints about the odour and gas leak.
There was gas smell all over our building till 10th floor in Santacruz. We switched off the mains. @mahanagargas has closed its emergency call service. What's happening Mumbai? #mumbaigasleak
— Priyankaa Gandi/Vadra (Parody) (@roflpriyanka) September 20, 2019
As the news spread, people were shocked by what was happening.
What kind of random death wheel gameshow is Mumbai a part of right now? We had a warning for a cyclone and we ended up with a gas leak. God has no chill. #Mumbai #MumbaiGasLeak #gasleak
— Akassh Bhatnagar (@babblingbum) September 19, 2019
Some even preidicted how Mumbai will respond on Twitter after all this was over.
Morning twitteratis won't realize wat we smell in middle of night.
They might end up carrying weed jokes or fart competition practice (where some of might actually registrated to go) #gasleak #mumbaigasleak #Mumbai— Vikas Mishra (@Vikasmishra_22) September 19, 2019
Of course, there were many fart jokes.
#gasleak Seems everyone was preparing for the world fart competition to be held in Gujrat! :(( #mumbaigasleak
— Sankha Ray (@Sankharay) September 20, 2019
This Twitter user had a "brilliant" explanation for the whole incident.
No #mumbaigasleak, actually it was #GobarGas, not any hazards gas. Har taraf gobar, dimag me bhi gobar bhara jaa raha hai to leak kar gaya hoga.
— Lost Soul (@BawaleNain) September 20, 2019