Approximately 40 workers fainted at the TMI garment factory in Svay Rieng yesterday, police and workers said.

Workers at the factory began feeling sick and fainting when a heavy air of glue fumes wafted into the factory as workers returned from lunch, So Navy, 23, a TMI employee, said yesterday.

“I saw many workers in the workplace fall down and some vomited,” Navy added.

Workers were treated at a nearby health clinic and Chi Phou hospital, said Kao Horn, deputy police chief of Bavet. Their conditions were not serious, he said.

Glue fumes from the same adjacent factory caused more than 100 TMI workers to faint in May, Navy said.

Pok Vanthat, deputy director of the health department at the Ministry of Labour, confirmed the fainting but said the figure was closed to 28.

The factory is located inside the Manhattan Special Economic Zone where, last year, three women were shot by Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith while protesting working conditions.

Officials from TMI could not be reached yesterday.