The incident took place on the night of 2-3rd December, 1984, when around 42 tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate was released from the plant accidently, exposing more than 6,00,000 people to the toxic gases.
This chemical incident was caused by the entry of water into the tank that contained methyl isocyanate, which resulted in a chemical reaction, which resulted in increased temperature inside the tank.
The pressure within in the tank was more than the tank was built to withstand, as a result of which a huge amount of toxic gases were leaked into the environment.
