PETLAWAD, India, Sept. 13 (UPI) — Police are seeking the shop owner who they say illegally stored mining explosives that detonated near a restaurant in central India’sMadhya Pradesh state, killing 90.
Authorities say Rajendra Kasawa had stored the materials — which he was licensed to own — in an unauthorized way in a residential area of Petlawad’s Jhabua district,the BBC reports.
Several of the dead, including workers and schoolchildren, were inside an adjacent restaurant and a busy bus stop at the time of the blast. At least 100 people were injured, Arun Sharma, Jhabua’s chief medical officer, told CNN.
The office of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted condolences to the families of the deceased.
Police previously thought a faulty gas cylinder in the restaurant caused the explosion. Authorities are investigating the incident but say a fire may have caused the materials to detonate.
