The chief government of Aricell, a South Korean lithium battery firm, has been arrested over a large manufacturing unit fireplace in June that killed 23 folks and injured 9 others.
A court docket permitted the warrant for Park Quickly-kwan’s arrest on Wednesday.
Investigators have mentioned Aricell’s administration is suspected of office security violations. The hearth was considered one of South Korea’s worst manufacturing unit disasters lately.
Aricells’ father or mother firm, S-Join, didn’t instantly reply to a BBC request for remark.
After the hearth Mr Park issued an apology: “We’re deeply saddened by the lack of life and want to specific our deepest condolences and apologies to the bereaved households.”
“We take nice duty and can sincerely present assist to the deceased and their households in each manner potential,” he added.
His arrest comes after a police investigation discovered that the manufacturing unit had been dashing to fulfill manufacturing deadlines.
Investigators mentioned there have been quite 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 hearth, the Aricell manufacturing unit housed an estimated 35,000 battery cells on its second flooring, the place batteries had been inspected and packaged.
As a lithium fireplace 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 underneath management.
The victims had been principally international 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 vehicles to laptops.
