A chlorine gas leak in Iran left almost 500 people in hospital on Sunday.

A report said 475 victims were to taken to hospital with respiratory and other symptoms in the city of Dezful, south-west of the capital, Tehran.

Forty-five of the victims were kept in hospital, while the rest were discharged.

Iran’s official state news agency, IRNA, said that “the gas leaked from reservoirs in an abandoned warehouse belonging to the local water supply company.”

Dezful is an oil-rich city in the Khuzestan province, with a population of 250,000 people.