VIRUDHUNAGAR: Couple of days after a tragedy in a cracker unit claimed two lives in the district, four persons, including two children, were killed and 10 others injured in an explosion at an illegal cracker fuse manufacturing unit at Ondipulinayakanur village near here on Friday evening.
Police said, Meenatchi-sundaram, a panchayat union councillor, was operating an illegal cracker fuse unit in his shed at Kammapatti Colony in Ondipulinayakanur village. Another man identified as Ayyappan was running an illegal cracker unit adjacent to the shed of Meenatchisundaram.
On Friday, workers
were involved in manufacturing cracker fuse in Ayyappan’s shed. But, Meenatchi-sundaram did not open his unit.
Arumaiduari, Durairaj (42) and Sankaravel (45) of Kammapatti Colony, who were at work in Ayyappan’s shed, were involved in cutting the finished cracker fuse with knives.
Suddenly, an explosion occurred owing to friction of fuses in which Arumaidurai was killed on the spot, while Durairaj and Sankaravel sustained serious burns. Both the injured have been admitted to the Sivakasi Government Hospital.
The strong winds that were blowing in the region fanned the fire and it started spreading to the shed of Meenatchisundaram as well and triggered another explosion.
In the impact, the debris of the walls flew and hit the houses located nearby in which three persons, Ponnammal, Kaliswari and Kalimuthu sustained grievous injuries. While Ponnammal died on the spot, Kaliswari and Kalimuthu died at the Virudhunagar Government Hospital.
Totally seven houses that were hit by the flying debris suffered heavy damage. Eight persons, Chinnaraj (32), Lakshmi (29), Muniswari (10), Maheswari (8), Kaliammal (34), Murugeshwari (40), Karuppasamy (30) and Solaiappan (38), who suffered injuries after being hit by the debris, were rushed to the Virudhunagar Government Hospital.
The Amathur police have registered a case and are investigating. Earlier on March 14, the officials from the Amathur police station conducted raids on the shed of Meenatchisundaram and arrested 10 persons. But, Meenatchisundaram escaped from the spot at that time. Police also seized 10,000 bundles of illegally manufactured cracker fuse.