Sterlite protests: Fresh clashes near Thoothukudi hospital; bus set on fire

Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu: Fresh clashes erupted in Thoothukudi, also known as Tuticorin, on Wednesday between the police and protestors gathered outside General Hospital, where the injured were being treated. The Sterlite protest set a bus ablaze after which forces were deployed outside the hospital.

Earlier in the day, The Madras High Court's Madurai Bench stayed the ongoing construction of a new copper smelter at Sterlite Copper's Tuticorin plant.

A day before, as many as 11 people had been killed and 20 others injured in Tuticorin, as a protest against Vedanta's Sterlite Copper unit -- going on for 100 days since the company announced its plans to invest Rs 25 billion in doubling the capacity of its existing facility to 800,000 tonnes per annum -- turned violent. The protesters claimed the plant had been causing harm to its employees and increasing the capacity of the plant would aggravate the problems.

Meanwhile, the Union home ministry has sought a report from the Tamil Nadu government over the Tuticorin incident.