NEW DELHI, April 13 (Xinhua) -- At least eight workers were killed and seven others injured Sunday in an explosion that triggered a massive fire inside a firecracker factory in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, police said.
The incident took place at Kailasapatnam village in Anakapalli district, about 303 km northeast of Amaravati, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh.
The injured were removed to the nearest hospitals.
Police said a preliminary investigation revealed that the fire started in the explosive storage unit and quickly spread to the entire factory, trapping several workers inside it.
"The stockpile of crackers caught fire, and within minutes the entire unit was turned into rubble," a police official said. "There were 15 people working inside the factory at the time of the incident."
According to D Niranjan Reddy, a senior fire official, the cause of the explosion and subsequent fire seems to be a manual error in the manufacturing process.
Accidental explosions are common at Indian firecracker factories and shops as owners usually ignore safety standards.
