Police question Carrefour manager

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police detectives interviewed the manager of a branch of superstore Carrefour at Ratu Plaza shopping center in South Jakarta after Wednesday's gas poisoning incident that caused more than 20 employees to fall ill and forced the indefinite closure of the store, the second such incident since early November.

Four employees were still being treated in the hospital while the others have been released.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Prasetyo told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that two other Carrefour staffers, the management of the Plaza from PT Ratu Sayang and ten victims had also been questioned on Wednesday evening about the mysterious gas.

"No suspect has yet been named in the case," he said, while not ruling out foul play in the puzzling affair.

On Wednesday, 20 employees of the superstore, mostly women, were taken to Pertamina Hospital after complaining of severe headaches and nausea. Doctors were still trying to determine the exact cause of their symptoms.

However, Prasetyo said, the police investigators found in the preliminary probe that the exhaust fan located in the Plaza's basement parking area -- which is adjacent to the superstore -- was not functioning properly.

On Nov. 7, a total of 146 Carrefour employees were admitted to the hospital with similar symptoms and 45 required treatment for several days. Six of the victims were put in intensive care for a week, however the test results were not released to the public, by the hospital, police or Carrefour.

The police are still investigating the most recent incident. After the first incident, the police suspected that a leak in the air conditioning system was responsible, however others have speculated that it was vehicle exhaust from the parking area.

After the first occurrence, Carrefour resumed operations after taking several steps to rectify the situation, such as using the emergency exhaust fan and reducing employee shifts from eight hours to four.

Carrefour spokesperson Trijono Prijosusilo told the Post that they had tried to reach officials from PT Ratu soon after the first incident, because they were responsible for health standards pertaining to the working environment of the plaza's tenants.

"We only received their answer this week, wherein they had agreed to a meeting next week. But now it (the gas poisoning) has happened again," he said.

Trijono deplored PT Ratu's failure to take the matter seriously by repairing air circulation systems in the building, especially in the basement.

"We will not open the store until we are sure there will be no more risk (to our employees)," he added.