6 die in blast at pharma firm

Six workers were killed and one seriously injured in a high-intensity blast at a pharmaceutical company at Maheshwaram, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, on Monday morning.

The Cyberabad police said that a chemical filled reactor triggered the blast at the main filter in the manufacturing unit.

The mishap took place at Hasita Aromatics Private Limited at around 6 am. Eleven workers were present at a bulk medicine production unit. Four of them, who were standing several meters away, escaped without any injuries.

Four people died on the spot, while two others succumbed in the next few hours, said police officials from Maheshwaram police station.

Four of the deceased were natives of Chhattisgarh, one was from Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh and the sixth from Meerpet of Hyderabad. The Chhattisgarh natives were labourers, while the other two were floor in-charges at the unit. The officials suspect that the PPSRP reactor exploded due to imbalance in temperature. However, the exact reason is yet to be confirmed.

Eyewitnesses said the blast was so intense that the body parts of the deceased were scattered around the unit. “Four bodies were completely charred and scattered in the premises. Initially, we could only find two bodies. Later, during the search, the other two bodies were found in the debris,” said a factory worker.

“The chemicals stored in the reactor moves to the ‘Netch filter’ during the process of production. Something went wrong in between and the blast occurred. A team of technicians are probing the matter to find the exact cause. We are also checking if the security measures were in place,” said LB Nagar DCP Tafseer Iqubal, adding that the probe team would submit a report to the police.

Aromatics Private Limited is an intermediary production unit where various medicines are manufactured.

Probe teams from both police and drug control administration are verifying if the company had updated machineries and standard safety measures in place.

Maheshwaram police have booked a case following a complaint from the victims’ relatives.