Foreign Office updates advice for European country as 'toxic' gas forces people indoors
People in the area have been urged to remain alert
Travel advice has changed
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The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for a popular European tourism destination. A warning has been issued for those visiting or travelling to the Catalonia region of Spain.
It follows a warehouse fire near Barcelona. The warning was issued on May 10 and is still in place today on May 11. It states: "An industrial warehouse fire in Catalonia has resulted in a chlorine gas cloud over parts of the region south of Barcelona. If you are in the area you should follow the advice of authorities and monitor local updates, including staying indoors and keeping doors and windows closed."
Spanish authorities previously told more than 160,000 people near Barcelona to stay indoors, The Guardian reports.
The fire happened in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltrú, south of Barcelona. It started early on Saturday morning in a warehouse that stores pool cleaning products, the regional fire service said.
'If you are in the zone that is affected do not leave your home or your place of work,' the Civil Protection Service shared on social media.
It advised people to keep doors and windows closed in at-risk areas, which includes five local districts along the coast, from Vilanova i la Geltrú to the village of Calafell, near Tarragona.
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No casualties had been reported so far, the fire service shared on X. It added that it had deployed a large number of units to bring the fire under control.
It said it was 'monitoring the column [of gas] caused by the blaze for changes and for its toxic levels."
The fire led to a number of road closures in the area as well as shut train stations to prevent people travelling in and to the affected area.
Authorities had told people in the affected zone to stay at home and hours later lifted the order.
Firefighters urged residents to remain alert, saying that new shelter-in-place orders might be announced in specific areas, depending on the winds and the movement of the toxic cloud.
The warehouse owner Jorge Vinuales Alonso told local radio station Rac1: 'It is very difficult for chlorine to catch fire but when it does so it is very hard to put it out."
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He said the fire may have been caused by a lithium battery.
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