At least three persons were killed and as many injured following a blast at a firecracker manufacturing unit in a village here on Wednesday, police said.
The explosion, which took place in the Sirauli police station area, also caused damage to some adjoining buildings, they added.
The police said they are verifying the licence of the cracker unit's operator Nasir. A senior police officer said Nasir allegedly had the licence for another place, but the house where the incident occurred belonged to his in-laws.
"Three people have died and at least as many injured in an explosion at a firecracker-making unit in Sirauli area of Bareilly district," Inspector General (Bareilly Range) Rakesh Singh told PTI.
"The explosion has also led to damages in three-four adjoining buildings. The man operating the firecracker unit has been identified as one Nasir. He is said to have been in possession of a licence, details of which are being looked into," Singh added.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took cognisance of the incident. He condoled the loss of lives and directed officials to ensure proper treatment of those injured in the blast.
IG Singh said he was headed to the spot to monitor the situation and relief operations directly, where other senior district officials, including police, have reached out.
Local police teams, along with personnel from the health and fire departments, rushed to the spot soon after information about the incident to undertake the rescue work, officials said.
Bareilly Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Anurag Arya said the incident occurred at around 4 pm.
"As per the preliminary investigation, it has been found that Nasir had a licence for explosives for some other place but the house in which the explosion occurred was of his in-laws," said the SSP.
Denying the possibility of presence of some other explosive material leading to the blast, Arya said, "We have recovered remains of locally-made crackers from the spot. Prima facie it appears that the blast occurred because of them." The officer added that a probe into the matter is underway and appropriate action will be taken against those found involved in the incident.
Teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are still at the spot and are undertaking rescue work to ensure that nobody is left buried under the debris, the officials said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)
