8 prosecuted over east China chemical leak
Eight people were prosecuted over an accident in which 69 tons of chemicals were spilled into the sea off eastern China's Fujian Province, the provincial procuratorate said Wednesday.
The Fujian People's Procuratorate said three senior executives from the Fujian Donggang Petrochemical Industry Co Ltd faced charges of negligently causing and falsely reporting a serious accident.
The other five from the same company and a tanker were also charged for their roles in the accident, the procuratorate said.
The leak happened last November in the port city of Quanzhou when a tube loading C9 aromatics from the port to the tanker broke, causing contamination in the sea area. The city government said the company involved violated operation rules and tried to cover up the incident.
According to previous government reports, authorities cleaned up 40 tons of the chemicals after the accident while the rest have evaporated, and the environmental impact on nearby villages was limited.