The death toll in a firecracker unit blast in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada district rose by one overnight to 21.
Twenty people, including nine women, were killed and nine others seriously injured in a powerful explosion at a licensed firecracker manufacturing unit in Vetlapalem village in Samarlakota mandal on Saturday.
“The death toll is 21. One death occurred after midnight,” the official told PTI.
According to police, Adabala Srinivas, owner of Surya Shree Fire Works, was also among the dead.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan met the workers injured and undergoing treatment in the firecracker factory blast at Kakinada Government General Hospital and said that the accident occurred due to violation of rules by the owner of the firecracker factory.
He said that in view of festivals and fairs, more employees were engaged in work than the permitted number.
Kalyan said in a press release, “It is highly condemnable that a workplace which is allowed to hire eight people has hired 31 people. The rules will be further tightened to avoid recurrence of such incident in future.”
According to the actor-politician, the government will bear the entire cost of treatment of the injured workers.
