Hyderabad, Nov 25: Nine people were charred to death and four injured in a powerful blast that ripped through a detonator factory on outskirts of the city today, prompting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to order a judicial inquiry into the incident.
Seven bodies had been identified and two more were yet to be retrieved from debris of the Indian Detonators Limited (IDL) plant, police said.
Police had earlier put the death toll at 13 amidst confusion as no official of the factory was able to give the exact figure of employees working in detonator fuse plant-11 where the explosion occurred at around 0330 hrs. Generally 15 operators are on duty per shift but two employees did not report for work today, a factory employee said.
The blast was so powerful that the entire unit where the detonator fuse was being manufactured collapsed. The charred bodies of workers were strewn all around.


After visiting the blast site, Naidu announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh to each of the victims.

Describing the mishap as unfortunate, he said all precautions would be taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents.


The judicial probe, Naidu said, would go into lapses in safety systems.

Assuring the agitated employees, the Chief Minister said he would direct Ranga Reddy District Collector to negotiate with the factory management for adequate compensation package to families of blast victims.

This is the second such mishap in the IDL plant.

Earlier in 1980, seven people were killed in an explosion in the factory premises.


Bureau Report