Surat (Gujarat): A day after a major fire engulfed a chemical manufacturing facility in Gujarat's Surat city, bodies of seven missing workers were recovered from the premises in the early hours of Thursday, officials said. Out of the seven persons found dead at the chemical manufacturing unit of Aether Industries Ltd in the Sachin industrial area of the city, one was an employee of the company while six others were working on contract, Surat Collector Ayush Oak said.
"During a search operation in the factory premises, officials found bodies of seven workers who went missing after the fire which engulfed the plant on Wednesday," he said. The deceased have been identified as Divyesh Patel (company employee), Santosh Vishwakarma, Sanat Kumar Mishra, Dharmendra Kumar, Ganesh Prasad, Sunil Kumar and Abhishek Singh.
The collector said 24 people who were injured in the incident are currently receiving treatment in different hospitals. The fire broke out at the chemical plant at around 2 am on Wednesday following an explosion in a large tank after leakage of inflammable chemicals stored in it, Surat in-charge chief fire officer Basant Pareek earlier said.