by Peerzada Arshad Hamid
NEW DELHI, Feb 13 (NNN-XINHUA) – The death toll in yesterday’s explosion inside a fireworks factory, in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, has risen to 15, officials said. Thirty people, injured in the explosion, are undergoing treatment at different hospitals.
The explosion took place at Acchankulam village in Virudhunagar district, about 484 km southwest of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu.
“Today (yesterday), an explosion took place inside a fireworks factory here, which has caused many casualties. The injured have been removed to different hospitals and are being provided with treatment,” Virudhunagar collector, R Kannan said. “Rescue teams are on the ground carrying out searches in the debris.”
According to disaster management officials, so far, 15 people have been found dead.
“As of now, 15 people got killed in the explosion. The number of injured is 30,” said an official, in charge of disaster management office in Virudhunagar. “It was a licensed factory.”
Officials said, the death toll is likely to increase owing to the critical condition of some of the injured.
The explosion also triggered fire inside the factory.
As per local reports, firecrackers were stored in close to six rooms at the factory, and the rooms caught fire one after another, leading to multiple blasts and a huge fire.
Authorities rushed firefighters and fire tenders, besides police and disaster management teams, to the spot to carry out rescue work.
Officials said 100 people work in the factory but only 50 were present inside it at the time of the explosion.
Local reports said more than half of the workers had gone for a lunch break, when the explosion took place at 1:30 p.m. local time.
Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, expressed grief over the deaths. He has also announced a monetary relief for the victims, from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
“An ex-gratia of INR 200,000 (2,752 U.S. dollars) each, has been approved from PMNRF, for the next of kin of those who have lost their lives. INR 50,000 (688 U.S. dollars) would be given to those seriously injured.”
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Edappadi Palaniswami, also expressed grief over the incident and also announced a monetary relief of 4,127 U.S. dollars to each family that lost a member, and 1,375 U.S. dollars to each of the injured in the explosion.
Though the cause of the explosion was not immediately known, reports suggest friction during mixing of combustible chemicals might have triggered it.
In India, firecrackers are set off during festivals, weddings and other celebrations.– NNN-XINHUA
