The death toll from Monday’s massive explosion and fire at a pharmaceutical factory in India’s southern state of Telangana has risen to at least 36 while about three dozen were left injured, authorities said yesterday.
The fire department recovered the charred bodies of 34 workers from the accident site in an industrial area about 50km from the state capital Hyderabad, the state’s fire services director G.V. Narayana Rao said.
Two other workers succumbed to burns and were pronounced dead in hospital, Rao said, adding that debris from the gutted pharmaceutical unit of Sigachi Industries was still being removed to find out if any more workers were trapped.
Photo: Reuters
About three dozen injured workers were admitted to hospitals, he said.
“The whole structure of the factory has collapsed. Fire has been doused, and we hope to finish removing the debris in the next few hours,” Rao said.
Sigachi Industries did not disclose what led to the explosion and fire, but said the plant’s core manufacturing infrastructure was damaged and facility operations would be halted for 90 days.
The plant produces microcrystalline cellulose, a chemical compound commonly used in making drugs, the company said.
The explosion and subsequent fire was reported on Monday in the factory’s spray dryer unit, which is used to process raw material into fine powder for making drugs, Rao said.
The state’s Minister of Health Damodar Raja Narasimha said there were 108 workers inside the factory at the time of the explosion.
“As bodies were badly burnt and mutilated, a special medical team has been deployed to conduct DNA tests,” Narasimha said, adding the state government has set up a panel to investigate the cause of the incident.
Witnesses said they heard the explosion from a couple of kilometers away from the site.
India is home to some of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies, playing a pivotal role in the global supply of generic medicines and vaccines. The country’s robust manufacturing and cost-effective production have made it a hub for pharma giants.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to