Two people have died, and 19 others were hospitalized after a chemical spill occurred at a West Virginia plant, authorities said.

The leak occurred at the Catalyst Refiners plant, a silver recovery business in Institute, around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, as workers were preparing to shut down the facility, Kanawha County Commission Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman said.

Cleaning and decontamination activities were underway in preparation to shut down the site when a chemical gas reaction involving nitric acid and another substance occurred, creating hydrogen sulphide, which is a highly toxic gas.

It caused “a violent reaction of chemicals, and it instantaneously overreacted,” Sigman said.

As first responders arrived at the scene just before 10 a.m., a shelter-in-place was ordered for a one-mile radius around the site. An emergency alert program then notified nearby residents and businesses of the leak, officials said.

Nineteen people were hospitalized and seven ambulance workers were injured while responding to the leak.

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