India temple firework explosion injures over 150

By AFP
October 30, 2024
The spot where an explosion occurred in a firework storage facility near Hindu temple at Nileshwaram, in the sourthern Indian state of Kerala can be seen in this still taken from a video. — X@PTI_News
The spot where an explosion occurred in a firework storage facility near Hindu temple at Nileshwaram, in the sourthern Indian state of Kerala can be seen in this still taken from a video. — X@PTI_News

MUMBAI: Indian police detained two people on Tuesday after a temple fireworks show erupted into a ferocious explosion, leaving almost a hundred people in hospital, eight in a critical condition.

Hundreds were crowded around a Hindu temple at Nileshwaram in the southern state of Kerala on Monday evening to watch the fireworks, videos posted by Indian newspapers showed. Then, from inside a building, a surge of crackles can be heard, before a powerful ball of flame surges high into the sky.

“Around eight people are critical, and around 154 have been reported injured, out of which 97 people are admitted in hospital,” local police chief Shilpa Dyavaiah told AFP. “They burst firecrackers very close to the place where they have stored the firecrackers,” Dyavaiah said, adding that sparks from the burst crackers reached the cache.