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Fire in Chemical Factory in India Kills Several

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Fire in Chemical Factory in India Kills Several

A fire at a chemical factory in southern India killed at least six people and injured 13, a government official said on Thursday, with more casualties feared in the second such accident this week.

Pictures of the scene provided by government officials showed Wednesday's massive blaze, with at least two bodies lying on the floor of the factory in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

"There is a possibility of casualties increasing," V. Prasanna Venkatesh, administrative chief of the surrounding district of Eluru, told Reuters.

"Chemical processing was being done (in the unit) and gas cylinders were stored there."

The exact cause of the fire was not immediately clear but it could have been triggered when the cylinders burst for some reason, Venkatesh said, adding that authorities were investigating.

In the western state of Gujarat, a massive explosion at a chemicals plant killed six people this week. read more

Fatal fires in factories, hospitals and shopping complexes are common in India and often blamed on people flouting safety norms, as well as lax inspection by government officials.

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Floods in Eastern DR Congo Kill More Than 100

People in Kinshasa’s Pompage district after the Congo River overflowed. (AFP/Getty Images file)
People in Kinshasa’s Pompage district after the Congo River overflowed. (AFP/Getty Images file)
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Floods in Eastern DR Congo Kill More Than 100

People in Kinshasa’s Pompage district after the Congo River overflowed. (AFP/Getty Images file)
People in Kinshasa’s Pompage district after the Congo River overflowed. (AFP/Getty Images file)

Raging floods rushing through a village during the night killed more than 100 people, many of them children as they slept, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, local officials told AFP on Saturday.

The floods were sparked by torrential rains and ripped through the Kasaba village in the Sud Kivu province during the night of Thursday-Friday, Bernard Akili, a regional official, told AFP.

Torrential rains caused the Kasaba river to burst its banks overnight, with the rushing waters "carrying everything in their path, large stones, large trees and mud, before razing the houses on the edge of the lake," he said.

"The victims who died are mainly children and elderly," he said, adding that 28 people were injured and some 150 homes were destroyed.

Sammy Kalonji, the regional administrator, said the torrent killed at least 104 people and caused "enormous material damage."

Another local resident told AFP that some 119 bodies had been found by Saturday.

The village, which sits on the Tanganyika lake and is only accessible by the lake, does not have internet service, a local humanitarian worker told AFP.

Such natural disasters are frequent in the DRC, particularly on the shores of the great lakes in the east of the country, with the surrounding hills weakened by deforestation.

In 2023, floods killed 400 people in several communities located on the shores of Lake Kivu, in South Kivu province.