According to José Rito, the commander of Leiria’s Fire Brigade, the employees, aged between 36 and 55, showed signs of “respiratory tract irritation” and were taken to Santo André Hospital in Leiria as a precaution.
José Rito stated that the incident involved the bursting of a package whose contents remain unknown.
An official source from Valorlis, the waste management company servicing the regions of Batalha, Leiria, Marinha Grande, Pombal, Porto de Mós, and Ourém, clarified that “an unusual package was detected on the sorting line,” which could not be identified.
“As a precaution, we evacuated the facility following the release of an unidentified substance,” the source added.
The same source explained that the incident occurred on a sorting line for packaging deposited in the yellow recycling bins, urging proper disposal in these containers.
According to the website of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, the alert was received at 2:37 PM, and 11 personnel and four vehicles responded to the scene.
