An explosion at a chemical plant in Hyderabad has caused a massive fire that has killed dozens of people.
A massive fire has broken out at a new chemical plant owned by Sigachi Industries in the city of Hyderabad, in the southern Indian state of Telangana, killing at least 39 people.
Reuters reports this.
The explosion caused a massive fire that engulfed most of the plant. At that time, more than 140 workers were on the premises.
Some of them managed to quickly escape from the burning area, but most were trapped between the fire and the rubble. Rescuers fought the flames for several hours and after the fire was tamed, they began to clear the rubble to find the victims.
As of late Tuesday, 39 bodies had been found and 34 injured people had been hospitalized with varying degrees of injuries. The search and rescue operation is still ongoing.
The cause of the explosion remains unknown and is under investigation by a special commission set up by the state government. Due to significant damage to the plant's equipment and infrastructure, Sigachi Industries has decided to suspend operations for 90 days.
The plant is one of the company's three facilities in India that produce microcrystalline cellulose, a chemical used in the food and pharmaceutical industries and exported to many countries around the world, including the United States and Australia. The facility accounts for about a quarter of the company's total production, or more than 21,700 tonnes per year.
Let us recall that earlier we wrote about the fact that in the city of Centralia, Pennsylvania, an underground fire has been burning since 1962
