2015-04-14
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Police seize a protestor in Neijiang in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, April 14, 2015.
(Photo courtesy of a bystander)
Thousands of angry protesters took to the streets of Neijiang city in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan on Tuesday amid growing popular anger over the leakage of toxic gas from a nearby coking plant, local residents said.
“[There are] several thousand people [here],” a protester surnamed Hu from Neijiang’s Weiyuan county told RFA, adding that the protests were linked to a gas leak at the coking plant, just 800 meters from people’s homes.
“After the leak, the authorities just did nothing even though the factory is just 800 meters away, and some kids had shown adverse reactions,” Hu said.
“The parents want an explanation of what happened from the government, which initially said a coagulation agent had leaked, and then said it hadn’t,” she said.
“People were very unhappy with the government’s response, so they started demonstrating,” Hu said. “The high-schoolers came along as well today.”
“They pushed down the gates [of their school] and some kids were hurt,” she said. “They also overturned a police vehicle.”
Security forces had begun sealing off nearby roads, but officials had still done little to ease the standoff, Hu said.
“Some county government officials came out and said a few words and went away again,” she said.
‘Leave soon’
An official who answered the phone at the county environmental protection department declined to comment on the air quality in Weiyuan.
But the official added: “We are advising residents of Chengnan district [of the Weiyuan county town] to leave the area as soon as they can.”
However, a duty officer who answered the phone at the Weiyuan county government offices on Tuesday said emissions from the plant had returned to safe levels.
“The air quality here is fine now; there is no danger to human health,” the official said.
“We have set up a special task force [to deal with this].”
Scenes of chaos
Fellow protester Luo Yong described scenes of “chaos” outside the county government buildings in Weiyuan on Tuesday.
