Chlorine Leak Poisons 56 in Georgia

Fifty-six people including six children have been hospitalized in Georgia with chlorine poisoning after a storage tank leaked overnight in a suburb of the capital Tbilisi, officials said Wednesday.

"At around midnight in the Lilo district of Tbilisi there was a leak from a chlorine container. As a result, 56 people were poisoned and taken to hospital," interior ministry spokesman Zurab Gvenetadze told Agence France Presse.

Georgian television showed emergency services workers in masks rushing distressed victims on stretchers to hospital and launching a clean-up operation.

One 18-year-old man was in a "grave condition", the ministry said.

The cause of the leak is not yet known.

"An investigation has been opened," Gvenetadze said.

President Mikheil Saakashvili and Heath Minister Zurab Chiaberashvili visited the injured in hospital after the accident.