- A huge blast occurred at the privately held Escientia Advanced Sciences' 40-acre manufacturing unit in the Anakapalli district
- Officials said 17 workers died while over 40 sustained serious injuries and were rushed to hospital for treatment
- Preliminary investigations show the blast was caused by a gas leak, which eventually hit an electrical panel
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Amos Khaemba, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, brings over three years of experience covering politics and current affairs in Kenya.
Several families in India have been thrown into mourning after a gas explosion at a factory killed 17 people.
What caused the India gas explosion?
India state media said the fire broke out at the privately held Escientia Advanced Sciences’s 40-acre (16-hectare) manufacturing unit in the Anakapalli district on Wednesday, August 21.
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District police superintendent M. Deepika confirmed that 17 people died and 41 were seriously injured in the accident.
Deepika disclosed that preliminary investigations show the blast was caused by a gas leak which eventually hit an electrical panel.
According to the local police, workers caught in the blast suffered horrific chemical burns, given the magnitude of the fire.
"It was horrible, heartbreaking. They were screaming before they lost consciousness," local police official M Buchaiah said while describing the pain suffered by the survivors.
Officials said some of the 380 employees who work in shifts escaped unhurt as they were on a lunch break when the fire broke out.
Local newspapers reported that the force of the blast was so strong that it left severed body parts scattered around the site.
How many people died in Embakasi gas explosion?
Elsewhere, a deadly fire that broke out from a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) filling plant in Embakasi East constituency, Nairobi, claimed three lives.
Then Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Douglas Kanja, confirmed to the press that three people died in the explosion.
According to the police boss who was at the scene of the accident, 271 individuals were injured.
The officer said several buildings and vehicles had been damaged beyond repair in the incident, which put regulatory agencies like the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) on the spot.
Proofreading by Mercy Nyambura Guthua, journalist and copy editor at TUKO.co.ke
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