Thirteen people, including some child labourers, were charred to death and six suffered burns in a major fire in an edible oil factory in neighbouring Namakkal district, officials said on Thursday.
The fire broke out late last night in the godown of the factory, manufacturing edible oil from rice husk at Valayapatti, 26 kms from Namakkal, District Collector U Sahayam told PTI here today.
Most of the victims hailed from Bihar and Orissa.
Four of the victims had been identified as Shanmugam 37 (Tamil Nadu) Viswanath (40), Umesh Kumar (25) and Beer Muhammad (17), all belonging to Bihar.
The condition of four of the injured was serious at a local hospital in Namakkal, police said.
Namakkal District Judicial Magistrate Madurasekharan, who conducted a preliminary inquiry into the incident, told PTI that it was found that some of the victims were child labourers. It was not known immediately whether the factory had a proper licence, he said.