At least 36 people have been killed and about three dozen injured in a massive explosion and fire at a pharmaceutical factory in India.
Emergency services are searching the debris at Sigachi Industries for trapped workers.
At least 36 people have been killed and about three dozen injured in a massive explosion and fire at a pharmaceutical factory in India’s southern state of Telangana.
The bodies of 34 workers were recovered from the accident site in an industrial area about 50 kilometres from the state capital Hyderabad, the state’s fire services director G.V. Narayana Rao said.
Another two workers died from their burns in hospital.
Mr Rao said on Tuesday the debris of the gutted pharmaceutical unit of Sigachi Industries was still being removed to find out if any more workers were trapped.
“The whole structure of the factory has collapsed. Fire has been doused and we hope to finish removing the debris in the next few hours,” he said.
Witnesses reported hearing the explosion a couple of kilometres away from the site.
The cause of Monday’s explosion in the factory’s spray dryer unit — used to process raw material into fine powder for making drugs is unknown.
Telangana’s Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha said a special medical team had been deployed to conduct DNA tests on the badly burned bodies.
State Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who visited the site on Tuesday, said there were 143 people at the factory when the explosion happened.
“Rescue operations are going on,” he said.
“We fear that several people might be under the debris and others might have run away.”
Mr Reddy’s office said a committee was investigating the cause of the explosion.
Sigachi Industries said the plant’s core manufacturing infrastructure was damaged and facility operations would be halted for 90 days.
The company supplies pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics and chemical industries, and this factory made components to help make medical pills.
Factory owner Sigachi Industries said in a statement: “The incident has unfortunately resulted in the loss of human life.”
Shares of Sigachi Industries tumbled 8 per cent in intra-day trading on Tuesday, extending the previous session’s plunge of nearly 10 per cent.
In a disclosure to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday, the company called the incident “unfortunate” and announced that a thorough site assessment was underway.
