NEW DELHI - Ten people were killed and 15 more injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in India on Feb 17, police said.

The explosion was caused by a fire inside the factory in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, police officer Feroze Khan Abdullah told AFP.

He said the cause of the fire was not immediately known.

“Ten workers died in the blast that followed a fire incident in the factory, and five of the 15 injured have been hospitalised,” Mr Abdullah said.

He said the fire was soon brought under control.

Factory accidents are common across India, with owners often ignoring basic safety requirements and operating without permits.

Eleven labourers were killed in India’s capital New Delhi on Feb 16, when a huge fire ripped through a paint factory, following a blast that shook the neighbourhood.

Another eight people were killed and 80 injured in central Madhya Pradesh state in February, when a blast at another fireworks factory sparked a giant fire.

More than 40 people died in a blaze in a factory making school bags and shoes in Delhi in 2019.

One of India’s worst fires was at a school in the northern state of Haryana in 1985, when 442 people were killed, 258 of them children. AFP