Puducherry, Oct 10: Five persons were killed and 11 others, including six women, sustained injuries when a large stock of explosives blew up in a cracker manufacturing unit in Thuruvai at Villupuram district on Sunday.
The identity of the victims was not known.
The police gave the names of the injured as Vasu (23), Parvathy (63), Saravanan (33), Malarkodi (50), Velu (38), Vasantha (45), Poovatha (52), Ramar (38), Pachaivazhi (50), Kalimuthu (50), and Kannagi (40).
All the injured have been admitted to the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) here. JIPMER sources said the condition of one of the injured is serious.
According to the police, a case has been registered against N. Ramesh of Vanur who was the owner of the cracker manufacturing unit.
A group of people were engaged in manufacturing crackers when the accident occured, the police said. The cracker manufacturing unit was razed to the ground in the impact of the explosion.
Velu, a resident of Anaiyur in Sivakasi district,who is among the injured, told The Hindu that they would come to Thuruvai to manufacture crackers during Deepavali season every year.
Recounting the accident, he said: “We were drying the crackers outside the godown when we heard the noise. The crackers started bursting owing to heat around 4 p.m. I fell unconscious when debris hit me. I do not know what happened later,” he said.
Six women injured
Rajesh Kanna.M., tahsidhar of Puducherry, said among the injured, six women were from Ariyankuppam in Puducherry .
Villupuram District Collector L. Subramanian said that they were trying to ascertain the identity of the dead. A probe would be conducted to find the cause of the accident. The bodies had been shifted to Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
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