Authorities in central China suspended two environment officials and detained a chemical plant boss after hundreds of residents protested, claiming the factory polluted a river and caused at least two deaths in the area, an official said Sunday.
Nearly a thousand villagers gathered at government and police offices in Zhentou township in Hunan province on Thursday to highlight what they say is deadly pollution being discharged from the Xianghe Chemical Factory in nearby Liuyang city, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.
The protesters said chemical waste from the factory pollutes the water that irrigates their rice and vegetable fields, according to a resident of the township surnamed Geng, whom The Associated Press contacted by phone.
Geng said the villagers demanded free health checks and medical treatment after two people who died in the area were found to have excessive levels of cadmium, a toxic metal, in their bodies. She said authorities had ordered the plant to cease operations in March.
On Saturday, police detained the head of the Xianghe Chemical Factory and the government suspended the chief and deputy chief of the city's environment protection bureau, a Communist Party official said Sunday.
The official refused to give his name and said he had no further details.
Calls to the factory were answered by an automated response that said the phone number was no longer in use. Xinhua said the plant began operations in 2004 and that government departments were surveying the plant's impact on the environment and public health.
China's waterways, especially its major rivers, are dangerously polluted after decades of rapid economic growth and lax enforcement of pollution controls.
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