CAPE TOWN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A chemical incident at an industrial site in Cape Town, South Africa's legislative capital, sent a plume of fumes over the Montague Gardens area on Monday afternoon, forcing evacuations and prompting a multi-agency emergency response, city officials said.
Firefighters were dispatched after reports of smoke and chemical fumes hanging over the industrial suburb.
Charlotte Powell, the city's Disaster Risk Management spokesperson, said that "the latest information is that the chemical incident was linked to operations on the premises, and not a fire."
She said the city's Fire and Rescue Service had located company representatives and was "working with them to make the area safe and stop the plume that has originated from the building."
Firefighters also began evacuating the affected premises as well as the surrounding areas downwind of the plume, Powell added.
Authorities confirmed that people were affected by the incident. "At this stage, four patients have been treated -- one of whom has been transported to a nearby medical facility for further care," Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said.
Officials said the incident was still ongoing. ■