Kolkata, Feb 7 (IANS) At least four persons were killed and several others have been injured following a blast at a firecracker factory at Kalyani in West Bengal’s Nadia district on Friday afternoon.
Sources from the district police said that four charred bodies have been recovered from the spot of the blast and of the four, two are women.
The administration has yet to reveal the identities of these four deceased individuals. It is perceived that the four individuals killed in the blast were workers at the said factory.
Local eyewitnesses said that the impact of the blast was such that the entire factory shade was blown off and the entire structure came tumbling down.
Local people also suspect that the administration’s figure of four deaths till now is not accurate and the number of casualties will be much higher. The conditions of some of those who had been injured are so critical that it is doubtful that they may survive.
A huge police contingent and personnel from the state fire services and the disaster management departments have already reached the spot and started the rescue operations. The rescue teams are trying to locate whether there are more bodies trapped under the debris.
Questions are being raised on how permission for running such a hazardous factory was given in that area which is heavily crowded. At the same time, the police have started an investigation to track whether the firecracker factory had the requisite license or not.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has sought a report about the incident.
An instruction has come from the state secretariat Nabanna to the Nadia district police on Friday evening.
The police have been asked to submit a detailed report to the state secretariat at the earliest detailing on how the explosion happened, the exact number of deaths and injured and other information related to the mishap.
As far as information available so far the firecrackers factory had been operating for almost a decade from a residence owned by a local resident, Khokhon Biswas, who had been absconding since the blast took place on Friday.
Based on statements by the locals, the investigating officials doubt that Biswas was running the factory at his residence.
The local residents told the police that initially Biswas was involved in procuring firecrackers from the wholesale markets and subsequently selling them in retail markets.
However, as per claims, Biswas started manufacturing the firecrackers and in the past, there had been several complaints against him by the locals of indulging in the manufacturing of banned sound-crackers.
The police have issued an alert to track him, as his interrogation for getting information to certain questions on whether the said fireworks factory had valid license.
In 2023, as many as nine persons were killed in a similar blast at an illegal firecracker factory at Egra in East Midnapore district. There were similar blasts at Budge Budge in South 24 Parganas and Duttapukur in North 24 Parganas districts during the last couple of years killing several people.
–IANS
src/pgh
