Hyderabad: At least 10 workers, all said to be from Odisha, were killed and several others injured when detonators exploded in a stone quarry in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district Friday.
Reports citing district officials, who confirmed the deaths, said the explosion occurred at around 8.30 pm in the private stone quarry owned by one Srinivasa Chowdary at Hathi Belagal village of Aluru block.
Eight bodies were taken out of a shed till last reports came in. Some more people were believed to be crushed under the stone blocks.
Huge blocks of stone from the quarry fell on a workers’ shed in which nearly 30 labourers were taking rest after the day-long work under the impact of the explosion.
The explosion also triggered flames that spread to the surroundings from the quarry, setting ablaze three tractors, a truck and another shed.
The blast caused tremors in the nearby villages leading to cracks in several houses, forcing villagers to flee in panic.
The injured were shifted to Aluru government hospital immediately.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed grief over the mishap and asked Kurnool district authorities to rush to the spot to oversee relief operations.
YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan expressed shock over the incident and conveyed their condolences to the bereaved families. Pawan appealed to the government to take action against illegal quarry owners.
Agencies
