Seven women workers died and dozens more were hospitalised after an ammonia leak at a private seafood processing and export unit in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district on Sunday, according to district administration and hospital sources. The leak originated from the production area of the factory, which processes and exports shrimp, and quickly spread to the residential quarters on the premises where nearly 120 migrant workers were housed, most of them women from the eastern states of Odisha, Jharkhand, and Assam.

The state government initially reported only two fatalities, but by late evening the official death toll had risen to seven, with nine patients in a critical condition and 11 receiving ventilator support at the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital in Chennai. A further 23 were under intensive care at private facilities, authorities said. Medical staff described the victims as mostly young women in their early twenties who suffered severe respiratory distress, with some experiencing bleeding from the nose and mouth.

The cause of the leak remains under investigation, with early site assessments indicating a possible valve failure at the ammonia cooling system. Local residents have claimed the facility had been operating without permits for over a decade and had a history of illegal night-time gas releases, according to the Indian news agency IANS, though these allegations have not been independently verified. The National Disaster Response Force deployed a chemical-response team to contain the site, while police registered a case and secured the factory’s two owners for questioning.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay ordered the formation of a three-member inquiry committee comprising officials from industrial safety, pollution control and public health, demanding an interim report within 24 hours and a final report within three days. He announced financial compensation of 200,000 rupees for the families of the dead. Political parties have urged regular inspections of hazardous industries, with opposition leaders calling for improved safety standards and medical care for the affected. The incident has drawn attention to the conditions of migrant workers in the state’s food-processing sector, a key export earner.