SEOUL: A fish seller died on Saturday after drinking poison and setting himself ablaze during a protest demanding compensation for South Korea’s worst oil spill, officials said.

The suicide by Ji Chang-Hwan follows the recent deaths of two fish farmers, who also drank poison in despair at the destruction of their livelihoods from last month’s massive slick, which devastated the nation’s west coast.

Ji, 56, died from injuries sustained on Friday when he drank a bottle of herbicide before running on to a stage and dousing himself with paint thinner, witnesses said. He then set himself on fire with a cigarette lighter at a rally in the coastal town of Taean in South Chungcheong Province.

“Mr Ji passed away at 8:07am (23:07 GMT Friday),” a spokesman for Taean Town Medical Centre said.—AFP