Four persons, including two women, were charred to death following an explosion at an illegal firecracker factory in Kalyani, Nadia district, on Friday afternoon.
Senior police officers rushed to the spot with fire tenders and fire brigade personnel took over an hour to douse the flames. A forensic team, too, arrived the spot to collect evidence.
Preliminary investigation by the fire brigade revealed an electrical short circuit might have caused the incident.
Local residents said they heard a loud explosion around 1 pm and rushed out only to see the firecracker manufacturing unit on fire.
“It was a crowded area and we got information that the factory did not have proper authorisation. We are investigating to ascertain how it managed to operate in such a congested area,” said a police officer.
The local civic body, Kalyani municipality, has also set up a committee to look into how the factory was running in a thickly populated area.
The victims were taken to a local healthcare facility where they succumbed to their injuries.
In past two years, West Bengal witnessed at least four incidents of explosion at illegal firecracker manufacturing units in south Bengal killing over a dozen of people.
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