At least five people were killed and several others injured in a blast at an illegal firecracker factory in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district on Sunday, police said.
The explosion happened around 10 am at when several people were working at a two-storey building in Nilgunj's Moshpole in Duttapukur police station area, around 30 km north of Kolkata, they said.
Several buildings in the vicinity were also damaged in the powerful blast. The injured, which includes women and children, were rushed to a naerby hospital in Barasat.
The search and rescue team recovered at least five bodies from the debris. The firefighters were trying to douse the fire that broke out after the explosion. Police officers and disaster management department officials arrived at the scene to help with the rescue efforts.
Enraged by the explosion, a mob ransacked the house of one of the Duttapukur factory owners.
BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari slammed the state government, alleging that West Bengal has turned into a storehouse of powder kegs. "There is no monitoring of illegal activities by the police. These firework units are patronised by local TMC leaders," he alleged.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary alleged that illegal businesses keep running because the state government stays quiet. "The amount in which the explosives are found it is clear that Bengal government has given the permission to use explosives wherever one wants. Traders in Explosives are given complete freedom to run their business. This has resulted in a series of deaths and blasts. This shows a failure of the Bengal government," he added.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen told PTI that a Special Investigation Team formed by the state government had earlier busted several such illegal factories in the last few months. "If there are some units still functioning illegally, those will also be busted soon," he said.
Sen said at times action against such factories draws the ire of people as thousands depend on theses units for livelihood. "But we are firm in wiping out the menace of illegal fireworks," he added.
This is not the first time such blasts were reported in Illagal factories in the state. Twelve people were killed in a similar explosion at an illegal firecracker factory in Purba Medinipur district's Egra in May.
-- with inputs from agencies
