VietNamNet Bridge – On Thursday morning, hundreds of workers of the Taiwan-invested Hongfu Vietnam shoe factory in the central city of Thanh Hoa showed symptoms of poisoning. All hospitals in the city were inundated with sick workers.

Patients lie on the floor of a hospital in Thanh Hoa.

After drinking water at the factory before starting work in the early morning, many workers subsequently came down with symptoms of poisoning, such as dizziness, foaming at the mouth, vomiting and fainting.

The number of workers with similar symptoms increased very quickly. The factory’s health station had to ask for assistance from the Department of Health of Thanh Hoa Province. Dozens of ambulances were sent to the factory to take workers to hospitals.

Because of the incident, all hospitals in the city of Thanh Hoa were quickly overloaded. The Hop Luc Hospital alone received up to 500 people. The lobby of the first floor and the hallways in the hospital became patient rooms. After detoxification treatment, some patients were awake but many were still unconscious. The hospital hall was in turmoil when relatives of workers came to find their family members.

Outside the Hongfu Vietnam factory, which has about 10,000 workers, traffic was congested. Workers stopped working to go into to the street. The authorities sent security forces, traffic police and mobile police to the factory to restore order.

As of early afternoon Thursday the local Department of Health does not yet have an accurate account of the number of workers poisoned. An official from the health department said water samples at the company had been collected for testing.

Hongfu Vietnam is a joint venture with Taiwan that began operation in 2011, employing about 10,000 workers. In 2011, hundreds of workers of this firm were also poisoned after lunch.

Le Ha