Indian police are hunting for a suspect who illegally stored explosives that detonated in a restaurant building, killing at least 88 people.
The blast, one of the deadliest in India in recent years, occurred in the town of Petlawad in Madhya Pradesh state’s Jhabua district on Saturday morning when many office workers and schoolchildren were having breakfast in the restaurant and scores of labourers waited at a crowded bus stand near the building.
“The official death toll is 88, but the actual number may be higher, nearly 100. That will be confirmed soon,” senior Jhabua district police official Seema Alava told AFP by phone, adding that about 100 others were injured and rescue operations had been wrapped up.
“The explosives in the building exploded first ... extreme heat sparked a urea nitrate chemical reaction and then that was it. Everything went off after that,” Alava said. The blast destroyed neighbouring buildings and vehicles nearby.
She said a suspect, Rajendra Kasawa, who had been on the run with his brothers since Saturday, had illegally stored urea, gelatine sticks, detonators and other explosives used for digging wells, construction and mining in a warehouse in the building.
Although Kasawa had a licence for the material, Alava said he stored them “in an unauthorised way in a residential area” and had therefore been charged with culpable homicide and unlawful possession of explosives. “We were up almost all night. We will find him, it is only a matter of time,” she said.
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