The death toll in Monday’s explosion at a pharmaceutical plant in Telangana’s Sangareddy district has risen to 35, as rescue workers continue to clear the debris from the devastated site.
District Superintendent of Police Paritosh Pankaj confirmed on Tuesday the number of people killed in the explosion at Sigachi Industries pharma plant in Pashamylaram. “Several bodies have been found under the debris while removing it. As many as 31 bodies have been extricated from the debris while three died in hospital while undergoing treatment. The last leg of the rescue operation is still going on,” he told news agency PTI.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, along with a few of his cabinet members, visited the blast site. Health Minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha confirmed Revanth Reddy’s visit and said the state government had mobilised all necessary resources.
The explosion, suspected to have been triggered by a chemical reaction inside a reactor, occurred between 8:15 am and 9:35 am on Monday, June 30. The resulting blast flattened the industrial shed, threw workers several feet, and sparked a massive fire that required a large-scale emergency response.
Pranaam Hospitals in Miyapur received 21 patients on Monday with burns and head injuries; two were brought dead and one died the next morning, a senior official said. Dhruva Hospitals in Patancheru admitted 11 patients, of whom two were referred to superspeciality hospitals. Of the remaining nine, five are on ventilators. Seven have 40–80% burns, and two have 10% burns, the official told PTI.
A revenue department official said the identities of only nine bodies have been confirmed so far. The rest will require DNA profiling. Most of the deceased were from Odisha, West Bengal, and Bihar.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDF), local fire personnel, and police were deployed for rescue and firefighting operations. Two fire-fighting robots were also used during the efforts.
Sigachi Industries Limited, meanwhile, has temporarily suspended operations at the Sangareddy plant for 90 days, citing extensive damage to its manufacturing infrastructure. The company, according to its website, manufactures Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), intermediates, excipients, and provides operations and management services.
The state government has constituted a five-member committee to investigate the cause of the explosion and recommend safety measures. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his condolences and announced ex-gratia assistance for the victims' families.
This tragedy has once again raised concerns over industrial safety standards in the Sangareddy-Pashamylaram corridor, which has seen fatal industrial accidents in the past.
