PATNA, 16 September 2005 — At least 32 people including children were killed yesterday when a blaze at an eastern Indian fireworks factory set off explosions so powerful that the building collapsed, an official said.

Thirty-two bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the factory in Khusropur village, 35 kilometers (22 miles) east of the Bihar state capital Patna, district magistrate B. Rajendra said.

“We expect to recover more bodies when we clear the debris,” Rajendra told reporters. At least 20 people were injured, many critically, in the explosions and fire, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.

It was not immediately known how many of the dead were children. But many children’s bodies were piled in three-wheel scooters and small vans and were transported to hospital in Patna for post-mortems, Ranjan Rahi, a photographer, said. Relatives wailed as the dead bodies were pulled from the wreckage. The explosions were so powerful that the roofs and walls of the building caved in, trapping people inside.

While some burned to death, others died inhaling toxic fumes or were crushed to death by falling debris. Police, residents and relatives dug through the debris seeking more victims.

The workers were making fireworks when the explosion occurred. Police said a huge quantity of explosive materials, gas cylinders and powerful firecrackers was in the factory at the time.An electrical short-circuit was believed to have sparked the fire, officials said. More than 100 people were believed to have been in the factory when the blaze broke out, they said.

“We are investigating the license of the factory,” Rajendra said. Fire trucks battled for over two hours to control the blaze, Senior Superintendent of Police Kundan Krishnan told reporters.

“We first heard a loud blast and then a series of explosions shook the whole place. The entire place presented a chaotic scene with everybody running for cover,” one worker, Aftab said.

Efforts to control the flames were hampered by frantic relatives who jammed narrow lanes leading to the factory, looking for missing family members.

Towering Blaze in Assam

Damages Oil Well

Meanwhile, hundreds of fire fighters yesterday battled to control a towering blaze at a damaged oil well in northeast India sparked by natural gas escaping from the well head, officials said.

The crude oil well owned by state-run exploration firm Oil India was damaged Tuesday causing oil and natural gas to flood from the site in a remote tea growing area of Assam state.

The gas ignited yesterday afternoon sending flames and smoke soaring into the sky which forced hundreds of tea garden workers and villagers living nearby to flee, an Oil India spokesman said.

“This could be the worst ever fire (in the state) with the blaze rising at least 35 to 40 feet (10.5 to 12 meters) creating thick blankets of black smoke in the area,” Oil India spokesman Prassanta Barkakati said by telephone from the site.

Barkakati said the company had called in a team of Russian oil experts to control the blaze and plug the flow of oil gushing out of the well 520 kilometers (325 miles) east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

Police said local fire fighters arrived with 25 fire trucks yesterday afternoon, but found it tough to move closer to the well with the fire raging.