One killed, 14 injured in blast at explosives factory in Nagpur

Nagpur: At least one person was killed and fourteen others were injured after a blast occurred at an explosives factory in Maharashtra's Nagpur district shortly after midnight on Thursday, leading to the collapse of the building, officials said. The blast took place at a plant of the Solar Group located at Bazargaon in the district at around 12.30 am, they said, adding the entire building collapsed due to the explosion.

A person, aged 25, was killed and eight others suffered injuries, according to the officials. The injured persons were admitted to a hospital, police said. The company's Senior General Manager, Ashish Kumar Srivastava, told that the blast took place at 12.33 am in the crystallisation building, where energetic materials are crystallised. One person died in the blast and eight were injured. "We sent all of them to hospital for treatment," he said, adding the cause of the explosion will be clear after an investigation. Before the blast, there were indications (of an explosion) following which people there themselves left the plant, the official said. The cooling system automatically started after the blast and all the emergency processes of evacuation and building clearances were done properly, he said, adding that safety procedures were activated in the entire factory. "Our senior officers and directors reached the spot on time and all the teams along with police responded on time," the official said. The entire building collapsed because of the explosion, he said. The cost of treatment of the injured persons will be borne by the company and a proper compensation will be given to the deceased's kin, the official said. NCP (SP) leader and former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, who belongs to Nagpur, visited the injured persons in the hospital.