Four persons, including a three-year-old girl and a woman, were killed after an explosion occurred at a firecracker godown-cum-factory in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad district, police said on Tuesday.
Six persons were injured in the incident, which took place in the factory located in the Naushera area under Shikohabad police station limits on Monday night, a senior police official said.
The bodies of the deceased have been sent for postmortem and the injured have been hospitalised, , the official said.
"In Shikohabad police station area, firecrackers were stored at a house and a blast occurred there. Due to the impact of the blast, the roof of a nearby house collapsed. Police took out 10 people from the debris... six people are undergoing treatment at a hospital and four people have died... further rescue operation is still underway," said Deepak Kumar, IG, Agra Range, said.
The house has collapsed due to the explosion and several people are feared to be trapped under rubble, the police added.
A team of fire and police departments, and district administration are engaged in relief work under supervision of the Superintendent of Police and CMO officials, Kumar added.
According to local residents, around 10.30 p.m., there was a sudden blast in the firecracker godown due to which the walls of the building collapsed and about seven people of the same family living in it got buried under the debris.
According to information obtained from the district hospital, the deceased have been identified as Meera Devi (45), Aman (20), Gautam Kushwaha (18) and Kumari Ichha (3).
Responding to a question, Kumar said permission for any type of firecracker godown is prohibited in densely populated areas.
Necessary action will be taken in the matter after gathering information on how this godown was operating in a densely populated area, he added.
The senior police officer said a state disaster response force (SDRF) team will also reach the spot soon so that relief and rescue work can be expedited.
Meanwhile, Firozabad District Magistrate Ramesh Ranjan said that the rescue operations are underway.
"Rescue team is present at the spot. District hospital and sub-district hospital, both are on high alert... team of doctors, ambulance, fire team, disaster team, all are present at the spot," Ranjan added.
(With inputs from IANS)
