Senior officials inspected a unit in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, amid rumors about missing toxic waste containers linked to the Bhopal gas tragedy. Despite protests over potential environmental harm, authorities confirmed all 12 containers were accounted for.

Indian authorities said on Thursday they had completed moving toxic waste from the site of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster, which killed more than 5,000 people, to a disposal facility where it will take three to nine months to incinerate.

Indian authorities said on Thursday they had completed moving toxic waste from the site of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster, which killed more than 5,000 people.:: December 3, 1984On December 3, 1984 a methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory owned by American firm Union Carbide,

Authorities in India have removed four decades' worth of toxic waste from a chemical factory that saw one of the deadliest gas leaks in history. In December 1984, thousands of people were killed from a gas leak at a US-owned Union Carbide pesticide factory in the country's central city of Bhopal.

The government is also set to approach the Madhya Pradesh high court to seek more time to carry out the task, chief secretary Anurag Jain said.

Twelve containers of hazardous waste - remnants from the Union carbide disaster 40 years ago are being sent to Pithampur from Bhopal in a major operation under heavy security.

Thousands of people died in the central city of Bhopal in December 1984 after breathing a poisonous gas leaked from the factory. On Wednesday, around 337 tonnes of toxic waste was taken from the Union Carbide plant to an incinerator facility around 230km (143 miles) away after a court last month set a four-week deadline for it to be disposed of.

A convoy of trucks took away 337 metric tonnes of hazardous waste from the site of the Bhopal gas tragedy, 40 years after what is regarded as the world’s worst industrial disaster. The trucks left the abandoned Union Carbide plant in the capital of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday night despite protests by workers of the disposal plant the waste was destined for.