Illegal firecracker unit blast kills 7 in Bengal

A powerful blast at an illegal firecracker factory - nestled in congested Duttapukur in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal - ripped through more than a dozen houses, killing seven people and injuring at least a dozen others, as the explosion turned some of the houses into heaps of rubble and blew away doors, walls, roofs and furniture of some others. The intensity of the blast was such that it left body parts strewn across a radius of 500 metres from the site. While all the victims are yet to be identified, several are suspected to be workers at the unit. The factory was spread across 10 bighas and 60-70 people worked inside. It had chemicals stored in a laboratory-like set-up, which are suspected to have been used in the crackers. The unit used to be a brick kiln, which was shut down by the owners, who then converted it into a firecracker manufacturing unit that churned out thousands of banned crackers.