MELBOURNE, Dec 1, (Xinhua): Fourteen workers have been hospitalized due to a carbon monoxide leak at a meat processing facility in Australia's Melbourne on Monday. The fire and rescue service in the state of Victoria said that emergency services were called to the meat processing plant in Derrimut, 17 km west of central Melbourne, on Monday afternoon.

Emergency crews arrived and found that 60 people had been evacuated from the factory, with multiple casualties suffering from the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning. Oxygen therapy was applied to the patients until ambulance paramedics arrived at the scene and took 14 workers to the hospital in stable conditions.

Firefighters equipped with breathing equipment subsequently entered the facility, where they recorded dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide and identified meat preservation machinery as the source of the leak. The building was ventilated until carbon monoxide readings dropped to safe levels.