Four persons were killed in a blast that was triggered by a pile of country-made bombs stocked in a house in Kanchipuram on Tuesday.
The incident took place at around 3 pm on Tuesday. According to reports, Madheen, Saina and her son Mushtaq Ahmed lived in a house in Naguluthu street in Ward 35 in Kanchipuram. Mushtaq had bought country-made bombs from Nemili in Vellore to gift to the subscribers of a festival chit fund scheme run by the family.
The bombs went off Mushtaq was sorting the pile of bombs kept in the house. While it is not clear as to what triggered the explosion – a spark or the heat from inside the house – the fire started by the bombs soon engulfed an LPG cylinder inside the house, which then blew up, as per a report in the Times of India.
Since the houses in the lane are built very close to each other, the walls of two nearby houses were also damaged in the accident.
The magnitude of the explosion caused the walls of the house to crumble and also burnt a few vehicles parked nearby, according to the police.
Saina, Mushtaq and another man named Masthaan died on the spot while Sarbhuddin Banu, Saina’s 70-year-old neighbour, succumbed to injuries later in a hospital. The police said that the bodies of the three people who died on the spot were badly charred making identification difficult.
Witnesses said that though the fire and rescue services personnel rushed to the spot, they could not reach the exact location of the accident due to the narrow lanes. They also said that earth movers were deployed to search for bodies in the rubble.
The police have registered a case and are investigating the reasons why the explosives were stocked inside a house. The police are also questioning Madheen for more information regarding the incident.