More than 150 people were injured, with 10 of them suffering serious injuries, in a fireworks accident at a temple in Kerala's Kasaragod district late last night. Shocking images from the scene showed crackers triggering a massive fire and a cloud of smoke, as people gathered on the temple premises rushed to safety. The incident occurred during the celebration of the beginning of the festive season in the north Malabar region at Anjootambalam Veererkavu. Eyewitnesses reported that a fireworks display was ongoing around midnight, and one of the crackers may have fallen into a nearby shed where more crackers were stored. Visuals showed the crowd stunned as the shed burst into massive flames and smoke. A person named Priyesh, who was at the temple with his cousins for the festival, described the incident starting with a loud blast, followed by a ball of fire, which led to panic and confusion as many people were standing by the shed and could not move freely. He said they immediately started rushing people to nearby hospitals. A person named Sreerag, associated with the temple, had come from Bengaluru to attend the festival.
The explosion occurred during a festival, when a large crowd was expected. A spark from a flower cracker may have fallen into a shed where Chinese crackers were stored, causing the crackers to ignite. Local residents said the storehouse was near the place where the crackers were being burst. Panchayat representatives blamed a lack of proper supervision, as crackers are not usually burst on a large scale in the area, and there should have been more caution regarding the distance between the shed and the cracker-bursting site. The Kasaragod collector stated that crackers should be stored at least 100 meters away from the bursting site, but here the distance was only a few feet. The president and secretary of the temple committee have been taken into police custody, and the temple authorities said they had stored low-intensity firecrackers worth around ₹ 28,000 in a temporary store covered by a tin shed, which then exploded, leading to the tragedy.
(Video Source: MIRROR NOW)
