Altogether 14 workers were hospitalized after an industrial gas leak at a pharmaceutical plant in east China's Zhejiang Province, local sources confirmed Monday.

The accident happened at around 7:40 a.m. Sunday at Xinchang Pharmaceutical Plant in Xinchang County, Shaoxing City, said a source from Xinchang county committee of the Communist Party of China.

Preliminary investigations showed that the gas leak was caused by a cracked cushion ring in the reaction vessel, which sickened some of the workers working at the workshop at the time.

The nature of gas was not identified.

The leak was stopped soon after. Local authorities were carrying out further investigation over the gas leak.