BAGHDAD - Hundreds of people were admitted to hospitals after a cloud of leaked chlorine gas rose over a residential area in eastern Iraqi capital of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on Wednesday.

The leak occurred on Tuesday night when cylinders of chlorine gas, used in a water treatment plant in Baghdad's district of Sadr City, exploded due to a technical fault, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Sirens of ambulances and dozens of civilian vehicles evacuated the affected people to Baghdad hospitals while hundreds of families left their houses for fear of being affected with the poisoning gas, the source said.

"More than 700 people were received for treatment for being affected by Chlorine gas in different hospitals and medical centers in eastern Baghdad," Ali Hussein, an official in the Iraqi Health Ministry told Xinhua.