HYDERABAD, 24 October— At least 24 people were killed and 22 injured when two fireworks businesses went up in flames in separate parts of southern India, police and firefighters said.
In one incident, 12 people suffocated to death in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh’s capital Hyderabad after a firecracker shop in the same building as their hotel caught fire yesterday, police said.
The fire, caused by an electric short-circuit, broke out before dawn and soon engulfed the shop in the basement, said Lakshmi Prasad, the head of the Fire Department.
Most of the victims were sleeping in the Kartikeyan Lodge hotel at on the top floor of the building in the city’s busy Begum Bazar area. At least four people were in hospital with serious burns, while more than a dozen others were released after treatment.
"We were jolted out of our sleep by loud explosion-like sounds. The electricity was off and it was completely dark," said M. Ramesheswar Rao.
More than 25 people were rescued from the hotel. The fire was put out after one and a half hours.
"If the local people had not helped us out we would have surely died," Rao said. Meanwhile, in neighboring Tamil Nadu state, 12 people were killed and eight injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in Villupuram district late Tuesday, police said.
Rajiv Kumar, Villupuram district superintendent of police, said the firecracker factory blew up when incendiary stocks caught fire. The workers, who were making fireworks for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, were trapped when the roof collapsed, he said.
