[Yonhap News Photo]
Odorants used for sewage disposal and gas facilities were blamed Wednesday for causing last month's mysterious odor that sparked widespread public scare and nervousness in two southern cities.
Last week government officials held an unusual emergency meeting and set up a team of private and government experts to find the source of the strange smell reported by citizens in the southern port city of Busan and the nearby industrial city of Ulsan.
Police and fire stations in the two cities were flooded with scores of telephone calls complaining about what they called "gassy smell" in many parts of the cities last month.
They had been rushed to check gas pipes and other suspicious facilities but could not find any evidence or clue, triggering rampant rumors that the strange odor might be the precursor of natural disasters such as earthquakes.
Based on a week-long field survey, experts presented a preliminary conclusion Wednesday that odorizers imported from Europe for use at sewage disposal and biogas facilities were found to have caused the smell.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
