Maharashtra chemical factory blast kills 3, injures 15; rescue ops underway

Local eyewitnesses said the explosion, "sounding like a huge bomb" took place when many people were preparing to retire for the night

A powerful blast followed by a massive fire ripped through a private chemical manufacturing company Ramedeo chemicals in the Tarapur MIDC area of Maharashtra's Palghaer late on Thursday night, police said. According to reports, at least 3 people were killed and 15 injured in the incident that occured around 11.15 pm . Three of them are said to be in a critical condition.

"The blast, the cause of which is not yet clear, was so deafening that it was heard in a distance of 10 km, and houses and buildings were shaken," Palghar Control police official Pramod Pawar told IANS.

The blast is prima facie suspected to have occurred in a boiler room and efforts are on to douse the fire in the factory precincts.

Local eyewitnesses said that the explosion, "sounding like a huge bomb" took place when many people were preparing to retire for the night.

However, scared and shaken by the explosion, many feared it was an earthquake and hundreds rushed out on to the streets and sat there.

Further details are awaited and senior civil and police officials, besides disaster management teams, have rushed to the spot. The blaze has reportedly engulfed two nearby factories, too.

Palghar District Collector Prashant Narnaware, who reached the accident site in the early hours of Friday, told ANI that work to extinguish the fire and rescue people was underway.

"Around 11:30 pm, we came to know about the incident. Police machinery, revenue machinery and health machinery geared together and they contributed their best to extinguish the fire. Our work of rescue is still continuing," Narnaware said, adding that they had been able to control the fire to some extent.

There are chemical drums inside these companies which are spreading the fire, Manjunath Singe, Superintendent of Police, Palghar, said.

Many workers are believed to be stranded in the factories and the death toll could rise, the fire teams have informed.