Hundreds of protesters, including some families who brought the bodies of their deceased loved ones, protested outside the LG Polymers factory in India's Vizag on Saturday demanding the closure of the South Korean plant and action against those responsible for an earlier gas leak.
A video of the protest shows people surrounding the bodies while the relatives of the dead grieved and wailed. Eleven bodies of the victims of the gas tragedy were released by hospitals on Saturday.
#VizagGasTragedy
— Aneri Shah (@tweet_aneri) May 9, 2020
Villagers protest outside #LGPolymers in #Visakhapatnam with the dead bodies, demanding closure of the plant.#AndhraPradesh #Vizag #VizagGasLeakage pic.twitter.com/KW04DneZfW
Slogans were chanted against the factory administration amid the presence of police personnel during the scheduled visit by Director General of Police (DGP) Gautam Sawang.
The police officials stated that the crowd surrounded the DGP during his entry into the factory premises. Despite efforts by the police to contain the protest, a few protesters managed to barge into the plant and were later fished out.
Meanwhile, the former state chief and leader of the opposition Chandrababu Naidu has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to form an expert committee to probe the tragedy and also form a panel of "scientific experts" to study the impact the exposure to the gas will have on the health of individuals.
India's National Green Tribunal has already asked the South Korean factory to deposit an initial amount of $6.6 million (INR 50 crore) for the damage caused by the gas leak.
As the lockdown in India, in force since 24 March and scheduled to be lifted on 17 May, has been partially relaxed, Indian Home Ministry officials have asked industries and factories to follow the guidelines laid down before resuming operations.
At least 12 people were killed and more than 200 were hospitalised due to a styrene gas leak from a factory in India's Andhra Pradesh in the wee hours on Thursday. Soon after the mishap, videos surfaced all over social media showing people, children and animals lying unconscious on the ground.
