Three persons were severely injured and are battling for life and several others sustained injuries when a reactor at a pharmaceutical laboratory in Chityal of Nalgonda district exploded on Wednesday, officials reported.
The incident at Hindys Lab Private Limited located at Veliminedu village, on the NH-65 (Hyderabad-Vijayawada) side, took place around 5 p.m.
Pictures showed the laboratory was caught in huge flames and clouds of smoke continued to billow from the site for several hours, even as disaster response teams were in action.
According to Revenue Divisional Officer, Nalgonda, six workers were injured in the accident. Three of them who had severe injuries were shifted for critical care to Yashoda Hospital, Secunderabad, and the others with minor injuries were being treated at Kamineni Hospital, Narketpally.
“Preliminarily, as per company representatives, it is suspected that the explosion took place due to reaction of certain chemicals. A full report on the accident would be available on Thursday,” the official said.
Local sources said the injured victims were identified as plant manager Lakshmi Reddy, Shubham from the Chemist lab, and helpers Md. Wahid, Mohan, Baldev and Raj Kumar.
Although pictures circulated from the accident site showed a man fully burnt and lying unconscious, officials did not confirm his death contrary to the locals present at the site who also suspected that there were casualties, and alleged that actual information was being hidden by the company. Mediapersons were not allowed to the accident site.
Residents of Veliminedu, people’s representatives and activists staged a protest outside the laboratory against the alleged violations of the company. Hindys Lab Private Limited, which manufactures bulk drug intermediaries, they alleged, has not been following pollution control and safety norms.
As several fire tenders brought the situation under control, teams from the National Disaster Response Force and the State Pollution Control Board inspected the site and made a preliminary report.
Nalgonda Superintendent of Police Rema Rajeshwari and other officials visited the accident site and took stock of the situation.
