Batala blast: Rescue operations under way; factory illegal, says police

Surjit Kumar Dhal, Batala (Punjab), Sept 5: as many as 23 people were killed in an explosion in a illegal cracker factory here early on Thursday. Over 27 others were injured, some of them critically, in the incident. The Punjab police said the cracker factory was “illegal.”

Even as rescue operations continued at the explosion site, teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were trying to find out if any person still trapped under the debris, reports said. Batala Senior Superintendent of Police Opinderjit Singh said the police are now checking the licences of all the factories in the Batala city.

                The explosion also damaged buildings nearby, shattering windowpanes and even bringing down the roofs of a couple of them. Several four-wheelers were also damaged because of the impact. The explosion was heard kilometres away, local residents said. Several factory workers, some family members of the factory owner and a few passersby were killed in the explosion, officials said. Seven critically injured were referred to Amritsar medical college. After the post mortem, the bodies will be handed over to the families of victims, they said.  A forensic team from Chandigarh will soon reach the site to take samples, officials said.