Victims of Bhopal gas tragedy demand cleanup

HUNDREDS of people marched through Bhopal with torches before dawn yesterday to mark the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst industrial disaster and demand the cleanup of toxic chemicals they say still contaminate the Indian city’s soil and water.

Early on December 3, 1984, a pesticide plant run by Union Carbide spewed about 40 tonnes of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the city’s air, quickly killing about 4,000 people. The lingering effects of the poison later raised the death toll to about 15,000, according to government estimates.

Local activists insist the real numbers are almost twice that, and say the company and government have failed to clean up toxic chemicals at the plant, which closed after the accident.