At least six people were killed and several others injured in a firecracker factory explosion in West Bengal’s Duttapukur in North 24 Parganas district today, police said.
As per media reports, the explosion took place at around 10:00 am and also damaged several nearby houses. The death count is expected to rise as rescue operations are still ongoing.
Locals said that the factory had been operating illegally for several months. They alleged that the police and local politicians were in collusion.
A heavy police contingent has been rushed to the area and rescue operations are underway. The administration has not yet released an official death count.
This is the third such incident in the state in the past four months. Earlier on May 16, a similar blast in East Medinipur's Egra killed nine people and critically injured seven others.
The impact of the explosion was so massive that the factory which was being run from a residential building collapsed. The owner of the illegal firework factory died at a hospital in Odisha’s Cuttack later. Again on May 21, a re-run of the previous incident saw occurrence of an almost similar blast in South 24 Parganas Budge Budge area.
These incidents have evoked resentment among people, who are raising questions about the government’s intention to stop recurrence of such incidents in the state.
