Fifty-four people were exposed to the hazardous gas Wednesday after a 34-year-old farmer was taken to a hospital in Kumamoto City, Japan, after he drank chloropicrin, a pesticide, in a suicide attempt, Kyodo news agency reported Thursday.

After doctors pumped his stomach, the farmer vomited the toxic chemical, releasing harmful gas into the hospital room, the report said.

Twenty-three of the affected people were patients and 31 were hospital workers, officials at the Japanese Red Cross Kumamoto Hospital said.

The farmer was declared dead but police told Kyodo the 54 people sickened by the gas aren't in life-threatening conditions.