Rourkela: As many as nine employees were injured, of them eight were critical after a poisonous gas reportedly leaked from a blast furnace of the Rourkela Steel Plant here in Odisha's Sundargarh district.

Eight victims included senior manager Jayaram Barik, two RSP employees Duskhishyam Das and Pradip Kumar Sahu and five contract labourers -- Raju Maity, Shantanu Naik, Pradip Kujur, Suraj Chhatri and contractor Laxmi Singh.

While a woman worker among nine victims was discharged from the Ispat General Hospital (IGH) following primary treatment, eight victims have been admitted to the ICU of the hospital.

The incident took place at around 10.15 AM on Monday.

More details are awaited.