Five persons, including a three-year-old girl and a woman, were killed in a sudden explosion at a firecracker godown-cum-factory in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad district, police said on Tuesday. Six persons were injured in the incident, which took place in the factory located in the Naushera area under Shikohabad police station limits on Monday night, a senior police official said.
The bodies of the deceased have been sent for postmortem and the injured have been hospitalised, the official said.
"There is still a possibility of some people being buried under the debris," Deepak Kumar, IG, Agra range, who reached the incident spot and inspected it, said.
Team of fire and police departments, and district administration are engaged in relief work under supervision of the superintendent of police and CMO officials, he said.
According to local residents, around 10.0 pm, there was a sudden blast in the firecracker godown due to which the walls of the building collapsed and about seven people of the same family living in it got buried under the debris.
According to information obtained from the district hospital, the deceased have been identified as Meera Devi (45), Aman (20), Gautam Kushwaha (18) and Kumari Ichha (3).
Responding to a question, Kumar said permission for any type of firecracker godown is prohibited in densely populated areas. Necessary action will be taken in the matter after gathering information on how this godown was operating in a densely populated area, he added.
The senior police officer said a state disaster response force (SDRF) team will also reach the spot soon so that relief and rescue work can be expedited.
(With PTI inputs)
