Harda: "I have not been able to find my son so far," said a visibly worried man as his eight-year-old son went missing on Tuesday after an explosion leading to a blaze at a firecrackers factory in Madhya Pradesh's Harda city. The man, Raju, worked at the firecrackers unit and his son had come there to deliver food to him.
Seven people were killed and 63 others injured in the incident at the firecrackers unit, located in Bairagarh locality on the outskirts of Harda town, about 150 km from the state capital Bhopal, officials said. A number of videos of the incident surfaced on social media showing the fire with intermittent explosions taking place at the site and people running helter-skelter to save themselves.
In some videos, people were heard saying the body parts of victims got scattered far away from the spot. Raju told reporters that an explosion took place at the factory the moment his son delivered food to him. "The explosion occurred as my son Ganesh delivered the tiffin for me. He ran ahead of me, but I have not been able to find him so far," the man said in an emotionally choked voice.
He said more than 150 people worked in the unit and that he fled to safety following the incident. Some eyewitnesses claimed that materials blown away from the unit also hit some vehicles passing from a road near it. They claimed the sound of the explosions was even heard 20-25 kilometres away from the spot.
Some people shot videos of the fire while running away from the spot and from the roofs of houses located a long distance away. Locals claimed some houses located nearby were also damaged in the incident.
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