Andhra cracker unit blast: Death toll rises to 21

Vetlapalem (Andhra Pradesh), Mar 1 (PTI) The death toll in the cracker unit blast here in Kakinada district rose by one overnight to reach 21, said an official on Sunday.

As many as 20 people, including nine women, were killed and nine more were critically injured in the powerful blast at a licensed crackers unit at Vetlapalem village of Samarlakota mandal on Saturday.

"Death toll is 21. One death after midnight," the official told PTI.

According to the police, the owner of Surya Sri Fire Works, Adabala Srinivas, was also among the dead.

Kakinada District Medical and Health Officer (DM&HO) J Narasimha Nayak noted that all the 20 bodies of the victims were identified and handed over to their respective families after completing the post-mortem.

He said the 21st death, which occurred at Kakinada Government General Hospital (GGH) at 4 am today, will also follow the same procedure.

Nayak said the body will be handed over the respective family after the post-mortem.

According to the DM&HO, 10 injured workers are undergoing treatment now--one each in a private hospital and a community health centre in Samarlakota and the remaining eight in Kakinada GGH.

He said three of them are critical with 90 percent burns in Kakinada GGH and the remaining are stable.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, who called on the injured workers at the Kakinada Government General Hospital, observed that the owner of the cracker unit flouting rules led to the disaster.

He said that an excess number of employees over the permitted number were engaged in view of festivals and fairs.

"It is deplorable that a workplace which has permission to employ eight people has engaged 31. Will tighten rules to avoid recurrence of this kind of incident in the future," said Kalyan in a press release.

According to the deputy CM, the government will bear the entire expenditure of treatment for the injured workers. PTI STH SA