MP firecracker team blast kills 13, boy injured

The death toll from Friday’s explosion at a firecracker field in Hatta in Madhya Pradesh has reached 13, with an eight-year-old boy succumbing to injuries at a hospital in Bhopal, an official said.

Eleven people were killed and more than 200 injured on Tuesday when a massive explosion and subsequent fire leveled a firecracker device to the ground.

Manish Sharma, civil surgeon at Hatta district hospital, said: “It is tragic that a boy named Ashish Rajput succumbed to injuries in a hospital in Bhopal. The death toll has reached 13.”

Sanjay Rajput, the father of the deceased, said that they live near the explosion site and that Ashish was hit on the head by a stone in the explosion and is currently in a coma.

An official said earlier that the explosion injured more than 200 people, of whom 90 were discharged after treatment and 45 have been sent to hospitals in Bhopal, Indore and Narmadapuram.

The rest are receiving treatment at Hada Regional Hospital. Additional district magistrate Sadanand Gauda said on Thursday that seven people were reported missing by their families after the incident.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from associated news agency – PTI)