6 killed in blast at Andhra factory

HYDERABAD: At least six people were killed and more than 15 people were injured after a blast at a pharmaceutical factory in Eluru district of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday night, police said.

According to police, a reactor at the pharma unit of Porus Laboratories Pvt Ltd in Akkireddygudem village exploded at around 11:45 pm on Wednesday and set off a fire in the plant.

Pharmaceutical intermediaries and specialty chemicals are manufactured at the plant, according to police.

Nuzvid deputy superintendent of police, B Srinivasulu, said: “Preliminary investigations revealed that when the gas used for manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients in the reactor in the fourth unit of the factory leaked due to suspected malfunction and resulted in the explosion. More than 20 people were working in the unit, when the explosion took place.”

“The fire was extinguished within a couple of hours and situation was brought back to normalcy,” Srinivasulu said.

Eluru superintendent of police, Rahul Dev Sharma, said the cause of the gas leak was being ascertained.

Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed shock over the incident. He announced ex-gratia of ₹25 lakh to each of the kin of the deceased, ₹5 lakh to each of the seriously injured and ₹2 lakh to the others injured.

4 die in Varanasi fire

VARANASI: Four people were killed on Thursday when a fire broke out at a saree factory in Varanasi, police said. The incident took place in Ashfaq Nagar locality when the workers were cooking in the factory and synthetic materials kept nearby caught fire, they said.