Russians told not to panic over 'gas cloud' in city near plant struck by Ukraine

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The governor of Russia's Astrakhan region told residents not to panic on Wednesday after its main city, close to a huge gas chemical complex that was attacked by Ukrainian drones this week, was enveloped in a cloud of natural gas.

Governor Igor Babushkin said the gas that people could smell was the result of work to restart production at the plant near the southern city of Astrakhan, which has a population of about 475,000 people.

"Dear citizens, this morning the city was covered by a cloud of natural gas, which has a specific smell that appears after processing," he wrote on Telegram.

"Specialists are carrying out restoration work and have started to launch production this morning. Now the start-up and adjustment process is underway, including the launch of flare-burning."

He did not make clear which production was being restarted. Three industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday the Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant was likely to suspend motor fuel production for several months.

Babushkin said some gas flares had been extinguished when the plant was shut down after the attack, and restarting them required a release of gas that was then "ignited, like on a household gas stove".

He said the weather service was predicting the gas cloud would move away from the city.

"Natural gas is not hazardous to health in open spaces - in the near future the state of the atmospheric air will normalise," he said.

"I want to warn the residents of Astrakhan, in the coming days before the plant returns to its scheduled operating mode, such situations are possible. Do not panic!"

Some Astrakhan residents responded with sarcastic comments on social media.

"You see - natural gas isn't dangerous. Breathe in deeply," one person wrote.

Another posted: "It's 60 km from Aksaraisk (the plant's location) to Astrakhan! And the smell is so strong. What about the villages that are closer to Aksaraisk?"

The Astrakhan plant is among the world's largest gas chemical complexes. It processed 1.8 million tons of stable gas condensate and produced 800,000 tons of gasoline, 600,000 tons of diesel and 300,000 tons of fuel oil in 2024, according to industry sources.

(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Angus MacSwan)