At least five people were reportedly killed and several others injured in a blast at a stone quarry unit in Jharkhand’s Dumka district on Wednesday night, police said on Thursday, highlighting poor safety record and concerns about working conditions.
Dumka superintendent of police (SP) Kishor Kaushal said they recovered two bodies on Thursday from the remote Lipipara area, over 35km from the Shikaripara police station.
Shikaripara is around 350km northeast from state capital Ranchi on Jharkhand-West Bengal border.
Sources said the miners, who escaped unhurt, reportedly took the bodies and injured colleagues with them towards West Bengal soon after the incident.
Police, however, said they could not verify it until the investigation was completed.
Three bodies were reportedly brought to a hospital in Rampurhat under West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
“A team was sent to Rampurhat to authenticate if few bodies were brought there,” Kaushal said.
He said they were facing a major problem in the case as there no one has filed a complainant.
Locals said the incident took place on Wednesday night when illegal miners from West Bengal were fixing explosives at the quarry, which suddenly exploded. Others, however, said explosives were stored in an area of the stone quarry unit, which exploded when workers were mining stone chips.
{{/usCountry}}Locals said the incident took place on Wednesday night when illegal miners from West Bengal were fixing explosives at the quarry, which suddenly exploded. Others, however, said explosives were stored in an area of the stone quarry unit, which exploded when workers were mining stone chips.
{{/usCountry}}“We are verifying if explosives blew off while fixing or they were stored at a place. We have sought a report from the district mining officer to ascertain if this mine had permission for operation or it was running illegally,” Kaushal said.