India: demonstration with corpses after deadly gas leak

Outside the LG Polymers plant following a gas leak at the Visakhapatnam plant in India on May 8, 2020. REUTERS / R Narendra

Text by: Sébastien Farcis Follow

In southern India, a demonstration took place this Saturday afternoon May 9 in front of the factory where a deadly gas leak occurred. An accident occurred last Thursday that killed 12 people when styrene gas accidentally escaped from this plastic products manufacturing plant. The surrounding population is now demanding the closure of the site, and has even protested by depositing the bodies of the victims on the road.

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From our correspondent in New Delhi,

They are restless, worried and ask for one thing: that the chemical factory be moved. More than a hundred residents gathered on Saturday outside the factory, where the regional police chief was carrying out an inspection and some managed to break the security cordon to enter the site. They then took two of the bodies of the victims of Thursday's accident and deposited them on the road to block the ambulances.

The factory of the Korean company LG Polymers is located in a residential area, a few kilometers from the center of Vishakapatnam, the largest city in the Andhra Pradesh region. And hundreds of residents, including children, therefore breathed toxic styrene gas after the accident. The Indian environmental court has already ordered the company to pay a fine of 5.7 million euros, and local police have also launched lawsuits against company officials.

Many in India remember the leak of a Bhopal pesticide factory in 1984, which left more than 3,700 dead and 500,000 injured. The director of the American company then managed to flee the country and his Indian subordinates were not convicted after 26 years.

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