Five Indian workers burnt to death by molten rubber

NEW DELHI: Five Indian factory workers were burnt to death Thursday in the western city of Jaipur after tons of molten rubber leaked at a tyre manufacturing unit, police said.

At least 10 workers were putting raw rubber into a furnace when it cracked, pouring the substance onto seven employees at an unlicensed factory in the outskirts of capital city of Rajasthan state.

“Seven workers were burnt and two of them continue to remain critical,” Rameshwar Singh, police chief of Jaipur rural, told AFP.

He said emergency workers had to spray water to cool down the burning rubber before the injured were removed to a governmentrun hospital.

The owner of the factory has been charged with criminally negligent manslaughter and the factory has been sealed, Singh said.

All the victims were migrant workers from the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Workplace accidents a re common in India because of poor safety standards and lax enforcement of existing regulations.

Six workers were burnt alive at an air conditioning manufacturing unit in southern Hyderabad city in February.

Last year thirteen workers died at an illegal garment factory in New Delhi after a short circuit triggered a fire.