NEW DELHI: A massive blaze raged for hours at a fireworks factory in southern India, killing at least 40 workers and injuring 60 Wednesday, police said.
Large amounts of firecrackers and raw materials had been stored in the Om Siva Shakti factory with major Hindu festivals weeks away.
Police officer Najmul Huda said rescue workers and firefighters initially could not get into the building as the fire raged, triggering deafening explosions of firecrackers.
Workers fled the area, but many were killed as they waited at a nearby warehouse which also caught fire and exploded, Huda told reporters.
The Press Trust of India news agency said that about 300 people were working in the factory and 52 died.
Huda said authorities had suspended the factory’s license a day earlier after finding major safety violations. The management, however, operated the factory illegally on Wednesday, he said.
The fire, which spread to 40 of the factory’s 60 rooms, was put out more than five hours after it began, witnesses and news reports said. Photographs showed the factory had burned to rubble, and fireworks littered the ground.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, police officer P. Karupaiah said.
Sivakasi town in Tamil Nadu state is India’s biggest hub for the manufacture of matches and firecrackers. The town is about 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Chennai, the state capital.
The CNN-IBN television news channel said rescue workers had completed a search of the devastated building for trapped workers.
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Blaze at India fireworks factory kills at least 40
Blaze at India fireworks factory kills at least 40
Gunmen in military-style uniforms kill seven in Ecuador
QUITO: Gunmen dressed in military-style uniforms killed seven people Monday in western Ecuador, police said, as the country continues to grapple with drug violence.
Attacks by individuals dressed as soldiers are frequent in the South American nation, where drug trafficking gangs with connections to international cartels are fighting over turf.
Monday’s massacre occurred at a ranch in Manabi, which has been under a state of emergency — along with eight other provinces — since January.
President Daniel Noboa has deployed the military in anti-drug campaigns but homicides have only increased, ticking up to a record 9,216 violent deaths last year.
Monday’s attack occurred in the early morning and “left seven people dead from gunshot wounds,” police said.
Before killing them, the attackers took the victims to a courtyard, interrogated them, and then opened fire with rifles and handguns.
Among the dead was a 16-year-old boy.
Ecuador has gone from being one of South America’s safest countries to a major cocaine trafficking hub in the space of a few years, plagued by gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels.
Its strategic location on the Pacific Ocean has made it a gateway for Colombian and Peruvian cocaine destined for the United States and Europe.
Attacks by individuals dressed as soldiers are frequent in the South American nation, where drug trafficking gangs with connections to international cartels are fighting over turf.
Monday’s massacre occurred at a ranch in Manabi, which has been under a state of emergency — along with eight other provinces — since January.
President Daniel Noboa has deployed the military in anti-drug campaigns but homicides have only increased, ticking up to a record 9,216 violent deaths last year.
Monday’s attack occurred in the early morning and “left seven people dead from gunshot wounds,” police said.
Before killing them, the attackers took the victims to a courtyard, interrogated them, and then opened fire with rifles and handguns.
Among the dead was a 16-year-old boy.
Ecuador has gone from being one of South America’s safest countries to a major cocaine trafficking hub in the space of a few years, plagued by gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels.
Its strategic location on the Pacific Ocean has made it a gateway for Colombian and Peruvian cocaine destined for the United States and Europe.
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