A blast on the morning of Saturday, November 27 caused injuries to six people and a two-storey house to collapse in Puducherry’s Muthialpet. A man named Srinivasan, his wife Jyothi, daughter Ezhilarasi and her children were in the house when the blast occurred, trapping them inside. Of the six, three, including a child, are reportedly seriously injured.
The New Indian Express reported that fire and rescue personnel rushed to the spot after the incident occurred at 6.30 am on Saturday, and the injured have been admitted to hospital. Other reports state that Jyothi and Ezhilarasi sustained severe burn injuries and are receiving treatment at the ICU of the Government General Hospital in Puducherry. Four others are also undergoing treatment.
The cause of the blast is not yet known, as neither explosives nor a gas cylinder was reportedly found at the site. An investigation is underway, the police have said. However, the impact of the blast not only caused Srinivasan's house to collapse, but the adjoining building was affected too, and four people were rescued from there, according to TNIE. The building also houses a Bharatiya Janata Party office.
Mysterious blast at a house in Muthialpet , Puducherry causing heavy damages. Three persons injured in the blast of the seven persons rescued.@xpresstn @NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/SiGPICjKMI
— Debjani Dutta (@Debjani_TNIE) November 27, 2021
The impact of the blast was reportedly felt upto a distance of 100 metres. However, Superintendent of Police Loganathan told TNIE that it was not a “mystery” blast, and that the incident was likely caused by a refrigerator in Srinivasan’s house exploding. He further added that investigations are underway to determine the exact cause of the blast.
Earlier, in Tamil Nadu’s Salem, five people were killed after a gas cylinder exploded at the house of a fire station officer. Visuals of the incident showed that the house where the incident occurred had completely collapsed due to the impact of the explosion. Padmanabhan, the fire station officer, and his family were trapped under the debris, and were later rescued by fire and police personnel. However, he and his wife later succumbed to their injuries.