International
Indian police are investigating whether anti-nuclear activists were behind bomb blasts that killed six people near a nuclear power plant which started production in October despite protests by villagers.
At least two crude bombs exploded Tuesday in a house about nine miles from the Russian-built Kudankulam plant in the district of Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu state on India's southernmost tip.
The bomb likely went off "accidentally" as suspected activists were making several crude explosive devices Tuesday night at the house, police superintendent Vijayendra Bidari said.
Television footage showed at least three homes collapsed from the force of the blasts in Idinthakarai village, the home of many protests against the nuclear plant. The facility was unaffected by the incident and was operating normally, police said.
The People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), which has been spearheading protests against the plant, denied that its supporters were involved in the explosion.
Opponents of the plant, located on the coast devastated by the 2004 Asian tsunami, see it as a threat to the safety of villagers in the area. Plant opponents say it in a seismically sensitive area and they are concerned about a disaster similar to what occurred in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.
Police have filed a formal investigation that names three people in connection with the explosions, Sumit Sharan, a senior police official in Tirunelveli, told Reuters. One of them died and two were wounded in the blasts.
PMANE, however, denied any role in the explosions.
"We made it clear immediately that we have nothing to do with the bomb blasts," said PMANE founder S.P. Udayakumar.
Udayakumar said he believed gangs involved in illegal mining were behind the blasts.
The group and local supporters have staged demonstrations regularly over the last three years against the Kudankulam plant. Several homemade bombs were seized in police raids in 2012 and earlier this year.
The facility — planned since 1988 — is designed to help meet the surging demand for electricity in Asia's third-largest economy where power blackouts are frequent. Senior officials of India's Atomic Energy Commission told the Press Trust of India news agency that the plant was safe and functioning normally.
It started producing electricity five weeks ago, with an initial output of 160 MW. The plant is expected to eventually produce 2 gigawatts.
It is one of many that India hopes to build as part of its aim of generating 63,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2030 — part of a planned near 15-fold rise from current levels, according to the Nuclear Power Corp.
Al Jazeera and wire services
Error
Sorry, your comment was not saved due to a technical problem. Please try again later or using a different browser.