A bomb blast near India’s biggest nuclear power plant killed six people, police said yesterday, sparking a probe into whether the explosion was linked to protests against the facility.
The home-made bomb accidentally exploded overnight in a village near Kudankulam power plant in Tamil Nadu, destroying three homes and causing injuries, the district police chief said.
“The bomb exploded accidently inside a house. Six people died and three more are seriously injured,” police superintendant Vijayendra Bidari said.
“Some anti-nuclear activists were living in this village. This house was being used as a bomb-making facility. We are investigating from all angles,” he said.
The coastal village is about 4km from the Russian-built plant, which opened last month after delays and often violent protests by locals fearing a radiation leak.
A senior Indian Department of Atomic Energy official said the plant was functioning normally, the Press Trust of India said.
Television footage showed at least three homes collapsed from the force of the blast in Idinagarai Tsunami colony, part of Idinthakarai village, from where most of the protests have stemmed.
The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, which has been spearheading protests against the plant, denied its supporters were involved in the explosion, local media reports said.
Some residents were stockpiling small, crude bombs because they were embroiled in a feud with others in the village, according to the Times of India.
The bomb exploded while the villagers were assembling it.
Opponents of the plant, located on the coast devastated by the 2004 Asian tsunami, say it is built in a seismically sensitive area and are concerned about a Fukushima Dai-ichi-style disaster.
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