A tanker truck carrying sulfuric acid hit a guardrail along a local road Wednesday and overturned, spilling some of the acid into Nakdong River, South Korea’s longest river, firefighters and police said.
The truck, which had a load capacity of 25 tons, was carrying about 20,000 liters of sulfuric acid. About 200 liters of the acid spilled into the river, which passes through Gyeongsang Provinces in the country’s southeast, they added.
The 53-year-old driver of the truck suffered a minor injury.
The firefighters said they are trying to contain the spill by building an embankment to prevent more acid from flowing into the river.
Authorities said they are inspecting water from the river to determine whether the leaked sulfuric acid has negatively affected living things in the river. Sulfuric acid, which is highly corrosive, can be fatal to fish.
“As the acid that has spilled into the river has been diluted, it seemed that the accident would have little effect,” said an official at the provincial government.
The authorities said that they will continue to inspect the water in the lower region of the river to gauge the effect of the leakage for the next few days. [Yonhap]
