Chandigarh, May 30
At least five people were killed and 34 injured on Friday in a blast at a double-storey illegal firecracker factory located on the outskirts of a village in Punjab’s Muktsar district, police said.
Most of the victims were migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The factory, owned by Tarsem Singh, who is associated with the state-ruled AAP, in Singhwala village, was reduced to rubble owing to the intensity of the blast, trapping many under debris.
According to the police, the blast occurred at midnight. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals, including All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda, and most of them were stated to be out of danger.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Muktsar Sahib, Akhil Chaudhary, said the blast occurred in one of the rooms in the manufacturing setup of the unit, which led to the collapse of the roof.
Many people got trapped under the debris, and rescue operations were launched immediately after the police received information about the incident.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Jaspal Singh said five bodies had been recovered from the debris, and 29 injured individuals were rushed to AIIMS Bathinda and hospitals in Muktsar.