Many local residents in the commune's Tuyet Diem No1 Village began complaining nearly a week ago that they smelled gas from a liquefied petroleum gas storage facility.

"The smell is so thick and terrible, especially in the morning, that we don't want to go out of the house," resident Nguyen Van Nam said.

Vu Anh Tuan, vice director of the PetroVietnam Gas South Company, admitted that there had been a gas leak at his company's facility.

He told Viet Nam News Agency that the leak was caused by a broken gas compressor valve which had been replaced and vowed that the incident would not be repeated.

The PetroVietnam Gas South Company has three liquefied petroleum gas containers with the capacity to hold 3,500 tonnes each in the Dung Quat Economic Zone. About 100 tonnes of the gas are extracted everyday for local consumption. – VNS