WATCH: LG Electronics factory looted and torched by protesters

An LG Electronics warehouse in Cornubio in the north of Durban was looted and torched at 1am on Tuesday morning by a group of 90 rioters, and again at 2am by a second group of approximately 120 looters.

LG Electronics looted

The Korean Embassy in South Africa said in the statement “looters took away products and other equipment and resources, they set fire to the building in the afternoon” already.

In footage shared on social media, scores of people can be seen leaving with boxed televisions and LG home appliances, while a pillar of smoke billows in the background.

The Citizen reached out to LG Electronics for comment, however, the embassy confirmed no casualties were reported. An estimate of the damage caused could not be ascertained at the time of publishing.

After protesters looted another store owned by a Korean resident, the embassy said it was working with law enforcement agencies “to solve the problem and protect Korean residents”.

The LG Electronics factory employed 112 people, including staff from Johannesburg after the plant was relocated from KwaZulu-Natal back in January 2020.

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Protest tracker

In other news, a Google Maps user created a riot tracker tool to keep South Africans safe as protests and looting continue in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The Riots/Looting map has filters on the left bar to show both recent and past incidents, as well as points of interest in both Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

If you have the Google Maps app installed on your phone, simply click here – the map will automatically open in the app. To view the map on the web, follow this link.