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ABC News
21 hours ago
- Health
- ABC News
Death toll rises to 36 as search continues for trapped workers after India factory explosion
At least 36 people have been killed and about three dozen injured after a massive explosion and fire at a pharmaceutical factory in India's southern state of Telangana. The bodies of 34 workers were recovered from the accident site in an industrial area about 50 kilometers from the state capital Hyderabad, the state's fire services director G.V. Narayana Rao said. Another two workers died from their burns in hospital. Mr Rao said on Tuesday the debris of the gutted pharmaceutical unit of Sigachi Industries was still being removed to find out if any more workers were trapped. '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,' he said. Witnesses reported hearing the explosion from a couple of kilometres away from the site. It is not known what caused Monday's explosion in the factory's spray dryer unit — used to process raw material into fine powder for making drugs. Telangana's Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha said a special medical team had been deployed to conduct DNA tests on the badly burned bodies. State Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who visited the site on Tuesday, said there were 143 people at the factory when the explosion happened. "Rescue operations are going on," he said. "We fear that several people might be under the debris, and others might have run away." Mr Reddy's office said a committee was investigating the cause of the explosion. Sigachi Industries said the plant's core manufacturing infrastructure was damaged and facility operations would be halted for 90 days. The company supplies pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics and chemical industries and this factory made components to help make medical pills. Factory owner Sigachi Industries said in a statement: "The incident has unfortunately resulted in the loss of human life." Shares of Sigachi Industries tumbled 8 per cent in intra-day trading Tuesday, extending the previous session's plunge of nearly 10 per cent. In a disclosure to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday, the company called the incident 'unfortunate' and announced that a thorough site assessment was underway. -AFP/AP
CNN
a day ago
- Health
- CNN
At least 39 killed in fire at Indian pharmaceutical factory
The death toll from the explosion and fire at Sigachi Industries' chemical factory in southern India has risen to at least 39, officials said on Tuesday, forcing the supplier of pharma products to shut operations for 90 days. The government of Telangana state, where the facility is located, has formed a five-member committee to probe the incident, the cause of which is yet to be disclosed by the company. The explosion on Monday also injured 34, according to officials. 'We are still clearing the debris,' GV Narayana Rao, director of the Telangana fire disaster response service, told Reuters, adding that the building had completely collapsed. 'Once we are all done with the clearing, only then we will be able to assess if any other body is still remaining under the debris or if it is all clear,' Rao said. Police officials said more than 140 people were working in the plant when the incident occurred. Twenty-five of the deceased were yet to be identified, district administrative official P. Pravinya said. 'I came out (of the plant) to use the restroom and heard a loud blast. It sounded like a bomb blast. I came out and saw fire. A part of the fire also spread towards me. I jumped the wall and escaped,' Chandan Gound, 32, who has been working at the factory for six months, told Reuters by phone. 'Many of them (those inside) managed to escape, but a large number were trapped and could not come out,' Gound added. Sigachi, which makes microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), caters to clients in the pharma, food, cosmetic and specialty chemicals sectors in countries ranging from the US to Australia. MCC's compressibility, binding properties, and ability to boost drug release make it a vital ingredient in pharmaceutical manufacturing. It is also used to prevent the formation of lumps in food products, to maintain texture of cosmetic products, and as a fat substitute in low-calorie foods. Sigachi's Telangana plant contributes a little over a fourth of its total capacity of 21,700 million metric tons per annum. Its shares dropped about 8% on Tuesday and were headed for their sharpest two-day drop on record. Sigachi halted operations at the plant for 90 days from Monday citing damage to equipment and structures. The plant is fully insured and the company is initiating claims. In a separate incident on Tuesday, five people were killed and four others injured in a massive fire at a crackers factory in the Sivakasi manufacturing cluster in the southern Tamil Nadu state, a fire department official said. The incident is the latest in a series of fire accidents in the area.
CNN
a day ago
- Health
- CNN
At least 39 killed in fire at Indian pharmaceutical factory
The death toll from the explosion and fire at Sigachi Industries' chemical factory in southern India has risen to at least 39, officials said on Tuesday, forcing the supplier of pharma products to shut operations for 90 days. The government of Telangana state, where the facility is located, has formed a five-member committee to probe the incident, the cause of which is yet to be disclosed by the company. The explosion on Monday also injured 34, according to officials. 'We are still clearing the debris,' GV Narayana Rao, director of the Telangana fire disaster response service, told Reuters, adding that the building had completely collapsed. 'Once we are all done with the clearing, only then we will be able to assess if any other body is still remaining under the debris or if it is all clear,' Rao said. Police officials said more than 140 people were working in the plant when the incident occurred. Twenty-five of the deceased were yet to be identified, district administrative official P. Pravinya said. 'I came out (of the plant) to use the restroom and heard a loud blast. It sounded like a bomb blast. I came out and saw fire. A part of the fire also spread towards me. I jumped the wall and escaped,' Chandan Gound, 32, who has been working at the factory for six months, told Reuters by phone. 'Many of them (those inside) managed to escape, but a large number were trapped and could not come out,' Gound added. Sigachi, which makes microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), caters to clients in the pharma, food, cosmetic and specialty chemicals sectors in countries ranging from the US to Australia. MCC's compressibility, binding properties, and ability to boost drug release make it a vital ingredient in pharmaceutical manufacturing. It is also used to prevent the formation of lumps in food products, to maintain texture of cosmetic products, and as a fat substitute in low-calorie foods. Sigachi's Telangana plant contributes a little over a fourth of its total capacity of 21,700 million metric tons per annum. Its shares dropped about 8% on Tuesday and were headed for their sharpest two-day drop on record. Sigachi halted operations at the plant for 90 days from Monday citing damage to equipment and structures. The plant is fully insured and the company is initiating claims. In a separate incident on Tuesday, five people were killed and four others injured in a massive fire at a crackers factory in the Sivakasi manufacturing cluster in the southern Tamil Nadu state, a fire department official said. The incident is the latest in a series of fire accidents in the area.
CNN
a day ago
- Health
- CNN
At least 39 killed in fire at Indian pharmaceutical factory
The death toll from the explosion and fire at Sigachi Industries' chemical factory in southern India has risen to at least 39, officials said on Tuesday, forcing the supplier of pharma products to shut operations for 90 days. The government of Telangana state, where the facility is located, has formed a five-member committee to probe the incident, the cause of which is yet to be disclosed by the company. The explosion on Monday also injured 34, according to officials. 'We are still clearing the debris,' GV Narayana Rao, director of the Telangana fire disaster response service, told Reuters, adding that the building had completely collapsed. 'Once we are all done with the clearing, only then we will be able to assess if any other body is still remaining under the debris or if it is all clear,' Rao said. Police officials said more than 140 people were working in the plant when the incident occurred. Twenty-five of the deceased were yet to be identified, district administrative official P. Pravinya said. 'I came out (of the plant) to use the restroom and heard a loud blast. It sounded like a bomb blast. I came out and saw fire. A part of the fire also spread towards me. I jumped the wall and escaped,' Chandan Gound, 32, who has been working at the factory for six months, told Reuters by phone. 'Many of them (those inside) managed to escape, but a large number were trapped and could not come out,' Gound added. Sigachi, which makes microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), caters to clients in the pharma, food, cosmetic and specialty chemicals sectors in countries ranging from the US to Australia. MCC's compressibility, binding properties, and ability to boost drug release make it a vital ingredient in pharmaceutical manufacturing. It is also used to prevent the formation of lumps in food products, to maintain texture of cosmetic products, and as a fat substitute in low-calorie foods. Sigachi's Telangana plant contributes a little over a fourth of its total capacity of 21,700 million metric tons per annum. Its shares dropped about 8% on Tuesday and were headed for their sharpest two-day drop on record. Sigachi halted operations at the plant for 90 days from Monday citing damage to equipment and structures. The plant is fully insured and the company is initiating claims. In a separate incident on Tuesday, five people were killed and four others injured in a massive fire at a crackers factory in the Sivakasi manufacturing cluster in the southern Tamil Nadu state, a fire department official said. The incident is the latest in a series of fire accidents in the area.
Saudi Gazette
a day ago
- Saudi Gazette
Death toll in India factory blast rises to 34
KOCHI — At least 34 people have been killed in a massive fire at a pharmaceuticals factory in the southern Indian state of Telangana, according to news agencies. The blast took place during work hours on Monday at a unit of Sigachi Industries, leaving several injured and in critical condition. "As many as 31 bodies have been extricated from the debris while three died in hospital while undergoing treatment," senior district police official Paritosh Pankaj told the Press Trust of India. Police have registered a case against the management of Sigachi Industries, based on a complaint by the son of a victim. The company has said it is halting operations at the facility for 90 days, because of damage to equipment and structures within the plant. "The incident has unfortunately resulted in loss of human life, and there may have been individuals who sustained injuries," Sigachi Industries said in a statement, adding that it was ascertaining the number who are say approximately 60 people were in the building when the blast took place, leading to a complete collapse of the of the workers were migrants from states like Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in the north and east of the unit manufactured microcrystalline cellulose, a binding agent often used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food industries."Pressure seems to have built up when the workers were operating the spray dryer," a senior rescue official told the Indian Express newspaper. "Fine dust chemical particles too accelerated the blast and the subsequent fire."At least 25 victims were rushed to nearby hospitals with varying degrees of burns and injuries, rescue officials told the newspaper. Many had reportedly inhaled poisonous workers are still clearing the debris at the blast site and have told ANI news agency that they are unsure how many people were still trapped."Once we are all done with the clearing, only then we will be able to assess if any other body is still remaining under the debris or if it is all clear," GV Narayana Rao, director of Telangana fire disaster response emergency, told say DNA testing is being used to identify bodies that were charred beyond ruling Congress government in the state expressed "deep shock over the massive fire accident" and said compensation will be given to the families of the deceased and Minister Narendra Modi also expressed condolences and announced compensation of 200,000 rupees ($2,336; £1,699) for each for the families of the deceased and 50,000 rupees for the injured. — BBC
