Five labourers were killed and six others injured in a blast that ripped through a scrap shipyard at Alang port here in Gujarat Saturday, an official said.
The incident occurred when a team of labourers was cutting open a scrap chemical tanker with gas cutters in plot No. 140.
A suspected gas leak occurred, and with the residual chemicals inside the ship there was an explosion, said an official of the Bhavnagar police control room.
The injured were taken to hospital and the condition of two is reported to be critical.
The Alang port's shipbreaking yard stretches 10 km off the Gulf of Khambat, around 50 km from here.
It is the world's biggest graveyard for ships brought here for dismantling, cutting and breaking with the metal components sent for recycling to steel factories across the country.