16 killed, 15 injured as gelatin sticks explode in a jeep

Tindivanam, Apr 7 (UNI) Sixteen people were killed and at least 15 others injured when a jeep carrying gelatine sticks exploded at Chendur village in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu today.

All the bodies were charred beyond recognition. The explosion site presented a gory picture with a human head and pieces of limbs and other body organs strewn around.

The impact of the explosion was so powerful that eight houses and a school building in the vicinity collapsed and the jeep was virtually reduced to metal scrap.

Deputy Inspector General of Police-Villupuram range Vanniyaperumal told UNI that preliminary investigations revealed that the vehicle was carrying four boxes of 100 gelatine sticks each.

The explosive material was reportedly purchased from a licensed factory for stone quarrying by two persons identified as Babu and Shanmugham.

The duo had bought the explosives from one Sekar, a licensed vendor at Manalipet in Puducherry, who had a godown at Thenalapakkam near Mayilam in the district.

The jeep was on way from Thenalapakkam and when it reached a junction at Chendur village on the busy Chennai-Tiruchirapalli National Highway, villagers noticed smoke emanating from the vehicle and alerted the duo.

Babu, who was driving the jeep, parked the vehicle on the roadside, opened the bonnet and attempted to put out the smoke by throwing sand, along with his assistant Shanmugam.

About ten villagers also rushed to their help when the vehicle exploded, killing all of them instantly.

The deceased included four women and a child. Two Highway Department officials who were passing the site in a Tata Sumo at the time of explosion were also killed.

The injured were rushed to JIPMER hospital in Poducherry and to Government hospitals in Tindivanam and Villupuram.

Two persons succumbed to burns at JIPMER, police said.

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