Missing girl's body found, toll rises to 8

Palghar: The death toll in the explosion at a chemical factory in Maharashtra's Palghar district rose to eight on Sunday after the body of a missing girl was recovered from the debris at the site, officials said.

The blast took place on Saturday evening during the testing of some chemicals at the under-construction plant of Ank Pharma in Kolwade village, killing six people.

During the debris clearing operation, one more body was found on Sunday morning. The deceased was identified as Trinad Dasari (35), district disaster control cell chief Vivekananda Kadam said.

Later, the body of a girl, who was missing since the mishap took place, was also found, another official said.

"We recovered the body of the missing girl, identified as Khushi Surendra Yadav, from the debris around 1.30 pm today. She was in the age group of 13 to 14 years," district Superintendent of Police Gaurav Singh told PTI.

The blast took place on Saturday evening during the testing of some chemicals at the under-construction plant of Ank Pharma in Kolwade village, killing six people.

The six found dead on Saturday were identified as Mohan Ingle (45), Sakshi Madan (39), Nishu Singh (26), Madhuri Singh (46), Gokul Jadhav (18) and Ilyas Ansari (45) (factory watchman). Besides, the seven injured persons, including the plant owner Natwarbhai Patel, who was seriously hurt, were undergoing treatment at different hospitals, Kadam said.