In the late afternoon of 1 December, 15 liquid chlorine containers rolled off a trailer pulled by a Dongfeng truck as it slowly climbed to board a vessel at Shishou vehicle ferry quay in Jingzhou, Hubei province. Two containers fell into the Yangtze River while the remaining 13 were stopped by the ramp. The steel containers measured 2 metres long and 0.8 metres wide.

Senior officials from the local Shishou government, the police, the fire brigade, the maritime safety authority and environment protection agency all rushed to the scene. They cordoned off the area and quickly removed the 13 tanks. Environment officials tested the water and declared that there had been no leakage. MSA officials dispatched two fishing boats with magnetic equipment, and soon after midnight both of the remaining containers had been removed from the water.