Police in central India are looking for a man in connection with a massive explosion at a restaurant that killed 90 people, as angry residents protested at the way the authorities were handling the case.
A cooking gas cylinder exploded at the restaurant at the weekend, triggering a second blast of mine detonators stored next door, in the town of Petlawad in Madhya Pradesh state.
The state's top elected official, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, facedprotesters when he visited the site of the explosions. The protesters, shouting slogans and waving black flags, forced Chouhan to step out of his car and listen to their complaints against local authorities for failing to enforce safety regulations.
Police officer Kamlesh Bamaniya said the protesters were also angry that Petlawad police had failed to arrest a contractor who was accused of illegally storing the detonators.
Residents said that they had earlier complained to Petlawad town authorities about the illegal storing of explosives in the building, but that no action was taken, television channel CNN-IBN reported.
The restaurant, next to the main bus station in Petlawad, was crowded with people having breakfast when the blasts occurred.
Rescue workers worked throughout the day, pulling 90 bodies from the rubble.
Most of those killed in the explosions were labourers waiting to be hired by contractors to work in nearby manganese mines.
Around 100 others were injured in the blasts and were taken to hospitals. At least 20 of them were in critical condition, said a state health official.
Petlawad is about 950 km (590 miles) south of New Delhi
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here