At least 89 dead in Indian gas explosion, with schoolchildren feared among casualties
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 12 September, 2015, 4:51pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 12 September, 2015, 10:31pm
Agencies
A cooking gas cylinder blew up in a packed restaurant when people, including school children, were having breakfast. Photo: AFP
At least 89 people died when a cooking gas cylinder exploded in a packed restaurant in India's central Madhya Pradesh state on Saturday morning, police said, with the blast shattering nearby buildings.
The death toll rose rapidly from an initial count of 20 after rescuers recovered dozens more bodies from the debris of the destroyed restaurant and neighbouring structures in the town of Petlawad in Jhabua district.
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"Earlier we thought it was 104 based on various reports coming to us but now our own official information says 85 confirmed deaths," M. L. Gond, an inspector in charge of Jhabua's police control room, told Agence France-Presse. Police later revised the number up to 89, the Associated Press reported.
Arun Kumar Sharma, chief medical officer of Jhabua district, said from a local hospital that about 100 people were injured in the blast, 20 of them seriously.
Disaster stuck around breakfast time in the town of Petlawad, which is about 800 kilometres south of New Delhi, when the gas cylinder blew up and set fire to explosives stored nearby, police said.
Dozens of office workers and schoolchildren were among the restaurant's customers at the time, senior district police official Seema Alava said.
The restaurant was near an area which stored gelatine sticks, resulting in a large loss of life. Photo: AFP
Inspector B.L. Gaur said the restaurant was near an area which stored gelatine sticks used at construction sites.
"There was a second explosion, there were more casualties," Gaur said, adding the blast was so powerful it damaged adjacent buildings and ripped out nearby windows.
Television footage showed scores of people and rescue workers using their bare hands to shift mangled heaps of steel and concrete of the ruined buildings while police cordoned off the area.
Bodies covered in dust and ash lay in the streets alongside the twisted wreckage of burned vehicles.
Another district police official, Anurag Mishra, cited the restaurant’s proximity to a busy bus stand as a reason for the high number of casualties.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took to Twitter to express his sadness at the loss of life.
“The Jhabua tragedy is heart wrenching. I offer my condolences to the families of the victims and pray for the speedy recovery of those injured,” Chouhan said.
He offered compensation of 200,000 rupees (US$3,020) to the families of the dead and 50,000 rupees (US$755) to help the injured victims.
Domestic gas cylinder explosions are common in India, where safety standards are relatively poor.
But although reports of fatal accidents from cylinder blasts are frequent, mass casualties are unusual.
