At least nine people were killed and 29 injured when a pile of confiscated explosives blew up at a police station in the Indian portion of Kashmir late on Friday, police sources said, days after a car blast in New Delhi killed eight people.
Advertisement
Most of the dead were policemen, including forensic officials who were examining the explosives, said the sources, who did not wish to be named. Some of the injured were in critical condition, they said.
“The identification of the bodies is under way, as some have been completely burnt,” one of the sources said.
“The intensity of the blast was such that some body parts were recovered from nearby houses, around 100 to 200 metres (330 to 660 feet) away from the police station.”
The police chief of India’s federally administered Jammu and Kashmir region is expected to address a press conference on the incident shortly.
Earlier, a local police official said an explosion had ripped through Nowgam police station. The official said fire had engulfed the compound and fire tenders had been rushed to the spot.