BALANGIR:At least seven employees suffered injuries following an explosion in the Ordnance Factory at Badmal in Saintala block of the district on Friday. Three of the injured were admitted to VIMSAR at Burla in Sambalpur district in a critical condition.
However, contradictory reports on the cause of explosion emerged and it being a Defence establishment of the Union Government, the exact reason could not be verified.While one source said the accident took place when waste explosives were disposed in burning ground inside the factory premises which left five injured, there were also reports of the accident taking place during tests in the testing ground.
Similarly, there was confusion over the number of injured with some claiming that five Danger Building Workers (DBWs) and two Junior Works Managers (JWMs) were hurt while another source said only five DBWs suffered injuries.
The injured DBWs have been identified as Deb Ranjan Rout, Shiba Thati, Taranisen Bagarti, Baldev Ganda and Humer Majhi besides the JWMs Pradip Kuamr Sahu and Souri Narayan Pandey.
Although all the seven were rushed to the hospital on the factory premises, the JWMs besides Deb Ranjan Rout were later shifted to VIMSAR at Burla where their condition is stated to be serious.
Preliminary reports said the explosion was reported from Unit No 15 of the ordnance factory around noon.
Inspector-in-Charge of Badmal Police Station Artatrana Sahu said police is are yet to receive the MLC report and efforts to contact the General Manager of the Ordance Factory Govind Mohan proved futile.