The chief govt of Aricell, a South Korean lithium battery firm, has been arrested over a large manufacturing facility hearth in June that killed 23 folks and injured 9 others.
A court docket authorized the warrant for Park Quickly-kwan’s arrest on Wednesday.
Investigators have stated Aricell’s administration is suspected of office security violations. The hearth was one in every of South Korea’s worst manufacturing facility disasters in recent times.
Aricells’ mum or dad firm, S-Join, didn’t instantly reply to a BBC request for remark.
After the fireplace Mr Park issued an apology: “We’re deeply saddened by the lack of life and want to categorical our deepest condolences and apologies to the bereaved households.”
“We take nice duty and can sincerely present help to the deceased and their households in each method potential,” he added.
His arrest comes after a police investigation discovered that the manufacturing facility had been dashing to fulfill manufacturing deadlines.
Investigators stated there have been a lot of issues of safety on the plant, together with a failure to deal with high quality defects in batteries and hiring unskilled workers to deal with harmful supplies.
It was additionally alleged that Aricell had been dishonest in high quality inspections associated to contracts with the army.
The blaze broke out on 24 June after a number of battery cells exploded.
On the time of the fireplace, the Aricell manufacturing facility housed an estimated 35,000 battery cells on its second ground, the place batteries had been inspected and packaged.
As a lithium hearth can react intensely with water, firefighters had to make use of dry sand to extinguish the blaze, which took a number of hours to get beneath management.
The victims had been largely overseas employees, from nation’s together with China and Laos.
South Korea is a number one producer of lithium batteries, that are utilized in many gadgets from electrical automobiles to laptops.
